Vibration
by dgj212
Summary: Taylor Triggers as an acoustic tinker-sort of.
1. Chapter 1

finally done with this, hopefully this will inspire someone to make this kind of tinker taylor. feel free to use any ideas you find here its fanfic. ENJOY AND REVIEW!

I don't own Worm

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I moved through the dark empty corridors with a flashlight on one hand, the extended handle of a beat up hard-case luggage in the other, backpack on my back, I honestly look like someone who just got off the airport; creaks following my footsteps along with soft roar tracks of my suitcase. This sucks. The building was so old that parts of the floor had broken off to the floor bellow and the smell was so strong that it snuck past the bandana I wore protect both my identity and my sense of smell.

"KYAAA!" I let out a shriek when a large rat, about the size of small dog, squeaked its way past me; I held my chest and shook my head as I turned the corner headed to the last flight of stairs while calming my self. It really sucks. I quickly made my way up the extra creaky staircase to the last floor. I looked around. I honestly didn't know if the building was abandoned completely but I figured that the top floor would be a good place to hideout and experiment without drawing too much attention, and if I did catch the wrong attention, I'd have options to escape instead of being trapped in the basement with my exit blocked.

I would honestly love to do this at home but I didn't want to accidently break something and have to explain it to my dad. And there's a huge possibility that someone would know I was up to something, besides I had to be here anyway. My superpower, though it isn't flashy, it's definitely loud and required a lot of power. From a tall building at night I could steal power from the transformer nearby. The night before I had set something up to skim electricity, luckily no one was around to watch me.

I got to the room that was close to the transformer. I checked the door. Locked.

"Right," I muttered. I smiled. Time test. I turned to stare at the suitcase, frowning at the dents. I found it in the junkyard, luckily closed with nothing inside, the wheels were broken off so I searched for a similar set of wheels, played around with plastic and super glue and it was good to go. I quickly unzipped it.

Inside was a mess of clothes I used to protect the objects inside. I pulled out what many people would think was a flash light at first glance, in fact it actually was one until recently. It was a nine-ish inches long, inch or two in diameter, the end where the light came out was replace with a homemade speaker, and there was switch you pushed forward with your thumb to turn on the light, but now serves to turn the device on.

"Alright, lets see if it works," I muttered as I pushed the button forward, then the altered flashlight let out all sorts of whirling sounds as I pointed it at the door handle. In essence, my device is what a bunch of syfy enthusiast would call a "sonic screwdriver," at least it was in the way it worked in the tv show. I didn't think much of it at the time and my dad just calls it nonsense, since no tinker has made one including the resident tinker who could build anything from any tech tree, but after I triggered….

I smiled as I heard a click in less than three minutes and uttered a "yes," in victory. I was honestly afraid that it would fail especially since I might need it a lot tonight. I mostly just tested it on old padlocks I scavenged, screws, and different types of doors I could at least discreetly scan, no need to mess up my own crap right? I programed it to unlock stuff after I read up on the sonic screwdriver on all the things it could do in the show's wiki site, and I could do it too…if I had an unlimited energy source and had more knowledge that was outside my specialty.

At the moment my sonic screwdriver can only open stuff, not close or hack electronics (I still can't do that with my laptop). Here's my process, I scan things via-various sound waves and frequencies, use the data I collected and program with it on my laptop to unlock things, then I see if it works. I think I'll be finally done creating an algorithm that would already work to open doors and locks that have not been scanned before and even work with similar doors. I would like to be able to do more but I'm still learning how to do more with my specialty and solve my energy problems. So my designs were powered by a variety of store bought batteries, my sonic screwdriver is no exception. It could let out those noises for ten to twelve minutes uninterrupted. At best I can recharge the batteries but realistically, in fight, needing to switch out batteries is a huge drawback. So I have few ideas but none seem as practical as simply buying and swapping out batteries.

I quickly opened the door and walked in with the suitcase, making sure nothing fell out. Locked the door behind me, noting how hot the lock was. Something to work around I suppose. I looked around the room with my actual hand crank flashlight. Not my first pick but a room is room, it should serve its purpose quite well.

The wooded dining table, I'm assuming, was on its side, the chairs were thrown about, a single mirror near what I assumed is the dining room bisected by a cracked plastered counter from kitchen was broken. The room had a bunch of graffiti, I would have wondered how they got in without opening the door but the window was broken, figures. I quickly set the table up and place upon it the fruits of my labor. I walked to the window, careful of the glass here and there, opened it so that I get a good view of the transformer. I walked to my suitcase, and took out another odd invention. I set up what was basically recycled metal umbrella stems that collapsed easily, they were used for legs in my tripod contraption, connected to it was repurposed telescope that had broken legs, and cracked lens I found tossed away, took a lot of cleaning and cutting but I was able to make use of it, a boom stick mic I improved was installed at the end with a homemade speaker right behind the mic. I quickly put the "sound wheels" in place, and then I set up a small sound carousal near the end to catch any excess energy, it was just thing iron rod with two plastic bottles, nothing fancy. Last but not least, I put in a small double a battery that powered the speaker, at least initially. I checked with a cheap laser pointer to see if it was aligned right; satisfied that it was, I walked back to my suitcase, pulled out an inflatable chair and a pulled out an air pump from my backpack, and I started pumping.

"Fuck, I'm out of shape," I muttered by the end of it as I wiped the sweat off my brows, noting it was cold. I wish I was able to layer more, but I looked weird as it was. That's when it hits me. The loud music playing, I turned my head to the window and quickly crept towards it, peeked outside and saw a bouncer at the back entrance of a building looking bored and smoking along with a few other employees, bartenders looks like, all wearing their respective outfits and ties. I couldn't help but smirk, "Right, on time." I grabbed my backpack while I turned on the mic and speaker and powered my laptop. I quickly opened a window for my Bluetooth connections and was not surprised to see a new window pop-up asking to connect to the power skimmer I made. I clicked yes and turned it on. After a second the sound of running electricity reached my ear and the "sound wheels" began to spin backwards with a **clack-clack-clack** and the sound carousal begining to spin followed by a high pitched **barum-barum** pulsing from the speakers.

My power skimmer had two parts to it, the first part is the homemade speaker I connected to the transformer that would send concentrated sound wave in a certain direction. Unfortunately I couldn't do much with it unless I wanted to attract attention, which is why it sounds just like static, that way no one would bother to look too much into the sound. I waited for the cover of night and for the nightclub I was near to start playing loud music (I could freaking feel it from where I was) for added protection. The second (forced) part is the mic/speaker-telescope power receiver I built, it used the sound it picked up and converted it into an electrical signal for speaker to release a sound at a certain frequency to move the sound wheels almost like a water wheel would (making the dimension and material of the repurposed telescope just perfect) in a river, and like that I have a small power generator. Anything left would bleed out the end or vibrate the telescope causing the sound carousal to move and more or less help power the speaker/mic. All in all, it was tinker bullshit, but one someone might actually be able to copy.

Incase it wasn't blatantly apparent; I'm a tinker/thinker, specialty, acoustics. A couple of months ago, I knew I felt different after being verbally abused again, a particularly harsh one, I guess that led to my specialty. When I got home I was more sensitive I guess. I mean I thought I was making tea with an old kettle rather than heating water in microwave for nostalgia sake and playing with the vibrations it produced with a string because I was bored. It was when I wanted to listen to a song in my old CD player and realized the headphones were smashed to bits, courtesy of being stupid enough to take it to school with me, that I found out I was tinker. I really wanted to listen to music and before I knew it, I had made a speaker out of household appliances without even trying, it barely even took half an hour to make, though I did break a few things and ruined a butter knife.

After that I started doing research. Acoustics, incase you didn't know, acoustic is the study of sound which includes the sound's production, transmission and effect. I didn't have to be a thinker to know my tinker powers could worm its way into other fields, for example, the hospital uses ultrasound to investigate the body without needing to cut, most popular use is looking at unborn children. Another popular use, mine anyway, is making super crunchy and yet fluffy french-fries. There's underwater acoustic, there's architectural engineering to effect sound, I can even build the same exact room they have in a college somewhere where you can't hear anything besides your own heartbeat; there's psychoacoustics which studies human behavior and reaction in regards to sound, ECT.

Then when I was researching, I ran into a little trouble…While my specialty can worm its way into other fields and does help me with the mundane task of using and creating soft ware and actual devices, it is still extremely difficult. If anything I work better using what I already have access to; already made speakers are easier to modify than to make my own and saves me a lot of time, modifying objects to transmit certain sounds and frequencies is easy, using free online software and bootlegged voice synthesizers is a lot easier to alter and suit most of my needs (for now anyway) than to spend weeks on end to make one. That's why I think I'm a hybrid between a thinker, who focuses on information gathering, and tinker, who creates devices beyond comprehension of modern science. I'm not a true thinker or a true tinker, just something in-between.

Well despite all that, I still felt a desire to try and create something, my tinker part's influence I assume. Honestly it was like a puzzle for me and I'm searching for pieces, some I have, others I have to scavenge and or make, my thinker influence I guess. And after I gather all the pieces? After I do that, I have to straightened out the metaphorical string, thread the needle with a very tiny hole and weave with it like I'm knitting a glove or scarf only with a very thin thread; the influence of both halves of my power. The process frustrates me, really frustrates me, it even infuriates me, but when I complete what I build, even if it needs improvements or isn't quite there yet, I get this HUGE sense of satisfaction…which makes me repeat the whole process all over again…fuck my powers.

All of this leads to my being inside an abandoned building behind a nightclub with loud music. Tonight was either going to benefit greatly or fuck me so bad I'd wish I never triggered.

I put a bunch of batteries to charge on my power skimmer, then I took out a repurposed boom box, plugged it into the power skimmer, and turned it on to let out certain sounds and frequencies that rats and creepy crawlies tend to avoid. I sat down took out a mobile modem, plugged it into my laptop and connected to the internet. I checked the power really fast, around 97%, I nodded to myself as I opened up the browser and up logged into a private window in the deep web.

A lot stuff on the ParaHumanOnline website was interesting but it was mostly fan discussions, with the occasional cape greeting the fans. It didn't have realible information for newly minted capes to catch up to speed with. So I downloaded an onion program and accessed the dark web.

A lot of people don't know that the web is basically a giant iceberg, the top portion above the water, that's the web everyone can access, beneath the surface, that's the dark or deep web that requires special programs to use and not be tracked, and it had a lot more sites then the web everyone has access to. What I found was definitely more…"uncensored" information that you would not find on the PHO site. And I found good guides for new parahumans and newsfeeds that do not make it on the news or the PHO site, some stories do cost sadly. Also, I found that tinkers were, basically, the earth aleph version of pokemons, you gotta catch 'em all.

And the things I found about how gangs "recruited" stubborn tinkers made my blood run cold. Lets not even talk about the thinkers who get cocky. I already knew to play it safe, but after what I read, I needed a weapon I could keep on me. I mean don't get me wrong even before I triggered I never wanted to harm anyone or anything, not even the worms my mom used to fish when she was still around. I was content to just use my powers for my on benefit. But if I was being honest, I guess I became more…attuned to with what I want deep down; its like listening to music, when you feel the right rhythm or the right beat, you tap your foot or rock your head, right? Well when I get taunted or in a physical altercation, the more and more I want to fight back, even if I get my ass kicked. It was part of the reason I was here.

I need money.

As newly minted tinker I don't have access to any good resources, in my case stuff I could repurpose, and my dad is struggling to support us as it is so I couldn't just ask him for money. So I did what I could with my specialty. I downloaded songs, I mixed them up sent them to a few folks poking around the deep web for that kind of stuff, and I got sent jobs, mostly mixings a few songs for cheap, making nightcore versions, or altering stuff for electric swings, or cleaning up a few audio bits, even transcribing some audio. Some of the jobs I got was uh…adult films…yeah, others were indie films, and then there were weird audio bits that, honestly, some of the recordings made me reconsider my current line of work. My last one left me pale and shaking because it was basically, after I cleaned it a bit, a woman getting murdered in a very brutal manner. Still, I cleaned up the audio to the best of my abilities and got paid and stopped taking request. It got me enough funds to start making things without bleeding my dad's wallet and then some to make it easier on him. After I collected my money from a PO Box, I began to browse the deep web for a new way to make money. That's when I got contacted by Pan Pizza.

Soundbite [20:42]:

 _I'm about to start testing soon. Are you sure the info on Faultline is correct?_

I typed into the window. I sat the laptop down and walked towards the table and started to assemble my various devices.

When I was looking for a new way to make money that didn't lead me to listening to…sensitive information, I was looking for good versions of voice synthesizers I could download without viruses, that's when I got an email from Pan Pizza. I was freaking out, he somehow tracked my IP address and sent me link to a site that didn't store conversations and was hard to monitor. He quickly apologized for the scare and asked if I wanted a job, apparently my work was too good for the rate I charged and too professional, he made an educated guess that my sense of value and the good job I did was the result of my being a tinker or thinker. He wanted to see if I could be professional so he sent me the audio of the woman being murdered, turns out it could have been evidence to convict a killer…sadly the victim's boyfriend killed the killer then committed suicide. I did not hear the end of that rant.

We started talking about what I wanted to do, villain, hero, I'll admit that I did want to be hero but that was way too much responsibility. From what I could tell, the wards was more or less heavily regulated on their actions, the protectorate heroes barely had free time, tinkers, according to Pan, lost their rights to their creations and are constantly under a microscope, and anyone who would employ shadow stalker even in the hopes to correct her behavior was out of their minds. According to Pan, the PRT didn't even make either shadow stalker or any of the other wards in Brockton Bay see a psychiatrist. Yeah, not going into that time bomb. Solo hero was plain too dangerous for me as a tinker and there really wasn't an independent hero group in the Bay that didn't reveal their identities and lets not even talk about being a villain. Then he offered, "why not just go mercenary?"

PP [21:13]:

 _Sorry for the late reply, that idose you made is awesome. Um all of it should be correct. The virus I brokered for you works, though I'm sure you altered it, ride is set up, just tell me when I should send it. Again, the tech should be extremely hot but not radioactive. If anything, FL would have it set to blow at best, but that's just the hard drive to be honest. You're seriously intent on storming her club?_

Yeah, the nightclub belonged to Faultline, a striker mercenary who could separate the molecular bonds of any non-living object, living or organic one of the two. Thank god for the Manton Effect. And my plan was to basically storm Faultline's home.

Soundbite [21:17]:

 _I was barely able to afford your services and still be able to afford hacked modem, which I'm still renting and now I'm bankrupted. This is the fastest way to improve just about everything I want. Still, I want to know why you even bothered with this? I figured you'd want to keep me alive for my tech._

I typed back. As I waited for his reply I reviewed the map he sent me and a few testimonies of girls who went up to the "parahuman" floor and buy Newter's drug, a case 53 who was orange and had a tail with a twist that his body was the essence of a hallucinogen, so basically they were buying his body…did he have them lick his-NOPE NOT GOING THERE! Anyway, what I want should be on the second floor, through door way and into the hallway.

PP [21: 25]:

 _Tried to broker a deal between FL with another client of mine, she didn't even bother to listen to me and it hurt my rep; as a broker my duties involves satisfying the needs of my clients, regardless of how idiotic it is. That and you paid upfront. You pull this off it'll damage her reputation and build up your credentials. If you think you can do it, I'm inclined to see what you can do, if you fail, well its no hair off my chest. I got paid and Faultline isn't the murdering type anyway, not unless one of her rosaries are down for good. But I have to ask, are you going to be okay? The fact that you are testing right now is not comforting._

Soundbite [21:33] :

 _Not for all of them, it's just a final check to make sure everything is perfect condition. I'll let you know when I begin. Just make sure my ride is there by the time I'm done. Also, can you send me a list of stuff I should be aware? Files or trinkets that might be worth a lot?_

I didn't like stealing but it was the fastest way to improve my tech and fill my wallet, maybe get an in, not even sure I wanted it. Besides, Faultline is a mercenary, sure the Merchants, a group of addicts and druggie capes, were basically a freebie but I doubted I could hide or recover any of Squealer's tech without her finding me and running me over with a giant monster truck. At least it isn't as bad as it would be if I stole equipment from the hospital, god I'd love to get my hands on some of those, or an innocent person I guess. Yeah it's faulty logic but beggars can't be choosers and this was as good as it gets. As soon as the batteries were done I would start my final testing.

I nearly cursed when I almost forgot to plug my sonic screwdriver to my laptop. I scanned a bunch of stuff as discretely as I could with my screwdriver, taking it in and out of my suitcase, hopefully no one ever caught me and by the time I'm done testing, it would have figured out how to quickly vibrate materials to lock and unlock as well having an algorithm in place to calculate how to unlock unknown scans. But then I have to change the pad an-I quickly shook my head and got to work. One step at a time.

I took a large black stereo-boom box, the type you see oldschool stereotypical black guys or white old-school wannabes rappers carry on their shoulders, only mine had very weird antennas on top and has detachable microphones on the side. This one used 12v 9ah type batteries, had to buy it, cost 25 bucks…I sighed.

I plugged a cord I made to my laptop and turned on the boom box, it let a series of sounds. I quickly opened a program I repurposed earlier and saw the variety of information pour in. A lot of people don't know about this but electronics let out sound waves for miles that only radio towers can pick up, and through the medium of sounds I could steal data by turning those sound waves and frequencies into a binary code and translate that, all this from devices that aren't even connected to the internet, hell even from devices that aren't designed to give out information, that was one of the my boom box's purpose. I couldn't do much with the data but eventually I would be able to hack into devices using sound, but I'm not there yet. I mean I could mess up and more or less control things using accelerometers a bit, things like smart phones, airbags, ECT. to a certain degree but that's about it. But data is data and the more I collect, the better idea I get about how to improve my tech.

As that was done I got up, grabbed a few batteries and headed to the table. The first thing I check was a series of mini-speakers I was able to get from the local super market, they were cheap pink capsules, four now but it used to be six, $8.45 a capsule. I modified them to work sort of on timer, like the ones some people have in their kitchens, then I throw it; once the timer hits zero it lets out a variety of loud frequencies that hurt people's ear drums, leaving them death (for a while), disoriented, off balanced and hopefully distracted before the battery blows destroying the important bits. I tested one on the beach near the shipyards on a group of merchants. I was far away with a pair of binoculars my dad had in the basement, I knew the merchants had some sort of barbecue-drug enduced-orgy or something setup, so I just planted the two capsules somewhere where they didn't stand out, and it worked for the most part. Luckily they thought it was a prank and just went back to their…party I guess.

I nodded and as I made sure they powered up. Then I shut them down. I could throw them and they'd survive long enough to do the job, as long as didn't throw too hard I assume. Once more I nodded and set them aside along with three clear-ish balls. Now to the big toys.

I couldn't help but smile, I even let out a small laugh, my next design was so stupid and bit overcomplicated. It was just a very lightweight pneumatic trumpet gun I built from scraps, it was just a handle and a trigger, a spot to put in 6 CO2 cartridges, inside the stock, a pressure gauge, the rest was a trumpet with a bunch of home built speakers added to it with glue and duct tape. I connected the batteries, two laptop battery packs, and turned the speakers on, and then it began to let out low frequency rumbles. I put the recycled backpack webbing attached to the trumpet gun over my shoulder then I walked over to the pile of old clothes I used as cushion in my luggage. Was this wasteful yeah, but they were clothes that didn't fit anymore on account of me being too big, plus a lot of these were ones that Emma picked out. I checked the gauge, the pressure was good; I inhaled and pulled the trigger. The trumpet let out a loud sound as I held the trigger, a **PORUMMMMMMM**. I took my finger off the trigger and the sound quickly died down. I walked to the window and smirked, the bouncer still smoking and talking to one of the two bartenders, the other was resting his eyes I think.

I walked back to the clothes and crushed them with the heel of my boot. I enjoyed the crinkling sound as the clothes shattered to pieces. My pneumatic trumpet gun? Pretty much a freeze gun where the gas in the cartridges underwent a sonic treatment inside the trumpet and shot out as liquid CO2 (for an instant) that was (again for an instant) colder than liquid nitrogen when it shouldn't be. Granted liquid oxygen and liquid helium is colder than nitrogen but you get my point. This gun was tinker bullshit.

I nodded as I turned off the devices on the trumpet and let the gun hang from my hip as moved to the next one. The gun I would be using as my offensive weapon.

I went through a lot of designs for this one gun.

It was a large gun; unlike my trumpet/freeze gun it required two hands to manage, both by design and by the weight. It was around three feet long and it looked fake as hell. I thought about mounting it on my shoulder but I decided against it. It was the only thing that could help me if I'm forced to use my trump card.

Originally I was inspired by the Mantis shrimp to make this gun. Dad and I were huddled up one night watching whatever happened to be on, it was a documentary about mantis shrimps from people who were not scared to go into the deep waters Leviathan has claimed. Or built a drone or something in earth aleph through radio instructions and doing it there. It was interesting. The Mantis Shrimp has claws that are so powerful that it inspired many people and tinkers who deal with modern body armor. It can strike at a newton force of 1500, the strike is so powerful that it can produce a unique phenomenon called Sonoluminescence where its shockwave creates a unique frequency that causes cavitation bubbles and at the same time the low pressure bubble generates a heat akin to the surface of the sun for just an instant and then for some reason scientist, tinkers and thinkers are still trying to figure out, light is produced. No one really knows what exactly creates the light but this theory is that the left over materials, like argon, that have not been evaporated heats up and the vapour briefly turns into plasma.

After two weeks of testing and tinkering, I found a few things. One, I can match the frequency that causes cavitation but that requires a medium for the sound to travel through, so I would have to hit the target physically with a gun or sonic baton or something and it is guaranteed to rupture organs…not something I wanted to do unless I absolutely had to. This led to my second discovery while trying to make a projectile, I can both make solid edible water and water balls sealed with a biodegradable seaweed based clear-wrap, I got the idea from paintballs and data from the research on what a few colleges were working on it to eliminate plastic bottles. Sadly that led to my third discovery, I could make plasma from the water and shoot the sealed water ball and solid water, but it still required close contact and both water ball and solid water exploded. The best I could do was combine the solid water with the necessary chemicals, wrap it in biodegradable wrap, and center the solid water with a tiny capsule/speaker that when squished shut the capsule would let out the frequency after three beeps, and turn the whole thing into a short-lived, extremely hot, plasma ball that destroys everything, no explosion so not a grenade. Not that useful by itself, so I gave the ball two layers, the outer layer was the wrapper that can be pulled off, the inner layer was a sticky layer that could stick on to anything only for a minute or two (realistically I only needed a few second so it isn't a problem). I tested it already without a tiny capsule, it stuck to my hand, so I altered a pair of gloves that wouldn't get caught and it worked like a charm, the real challenge was making the inner layer sticky…not a fun project.

I have three made plasma balls that got as hot as the surface of the sun, useful in a few situations but not by much, and I still lacked a weapon. That's where I got my second burst of idea, from plasma. It was ionized gas, which got me thinking of electricity.

The gun I now had in my hands was bulky, like I said before three feet long, looked more like a cosplay weapon (Greg showed a lot of his homemade ones in art class and the sad thing is that they looked better that what I had built) than an actual weapon. It just looked like a fake blocky gun by all means, I even spray painted it black hoping it would look more intimidating but just came of as fake. But that was just the protective casing. I picked up a sonic screw drive, an actual sonic screwdriver, not a door opener, and unscrewed custom screw that would not be possible without it and removed the top casing revealing the inner workings. Honestly it looked someone took acid and a collected bunch of bongs, bottles, beakers and metal whatnots with weird loops connected them all for some weird obscured reason, leading to the business end of the gun. All along the weird loops and beakers were custom speakers that emitted a variety of frequencies at different points. I couldn't help but sigh as I plugged in more laptop batteries. I really wish I had a better battery source that weren't bulky

After I made sure everything was in place, I went to my backpack, picked up three spray cans I had Pan gather for me. This was a bit of a design fault, I had to put the cans inside and that was it, no way to reload. I didn't like that so I made it so I could fit in a few CO2 cartridges, it helped a little but not by much. It wasn't a conventional gun but I still have to make every "shot" count. I put the casing back on, screwed it in. turned it on and felt the gun purr, chills ran through my body as I shivered.

I turned to the door, left hand near the business end of the gun, underneath the block barrel grabbing on to custom handle, my right hand on the handle in the back-thumb on a slide that went up and down that changed the volume of the gun.

Quickly, pulled the handle with my left hand back then down to release the spring loaded collapsible stand while the end connected to the gun (that was in front of the handle) moved to the center of the gun, got on my right leg used the gun to hold my self up, the stock of the weapon going under my right arm. I gave the gun a few experimental moves and twist, it was as good as it was gonna get. I quickly collapse the thing and aimed at the door, before I figured it would be a better idea to go somewhere darker. Luckily I found a bathroom, not big enough to walk in and fire the gun but I figured firing it from the door was a good enough. I aimed at the cracked tiled walls and pulled the trigger, I took a second but soon green lighting shot out in a stream just like water would out of a water gun!

 **SKRI-KRIK-SKRI** sounded off the electricity!

Quickly I used my thumb to raise the volume and it looped. As soon as I saw the wide loops propagate to the size of hula-hoop, I let go of the trigger and the electricity died out. Quickly I made my way to the window and smiled. The bouncer had lit another cigarette, and the bartenders were going back inside after casually tossing their buds.

I backed off and smiled at my gun.

Initially I wanted my gun to shoot out a chemical gas cloud propelled by soundwaves, the friction of the chemical gas cloud moving would generate electricity almost like dirty thunderstorm over a volcano. I wanted the handle for my left hand to control the cloud via sound waves, since I'm not the best shot. Sadly it used up too much power and would just push the cloud away before I could even decide to maneuverer it or it would be too slow, or worse, this actually happened on a small model, the gas would expand and dissipate before it hit a target. Besides, the control on the left hand handle would have been hard to use reliably in fight. Next I thought about just shooting a gas canister in an area and just use sound waves to cause an electrical current, a good idea but not when you wanted to just point and shoot, still, idea saved for crowd control. For a while I gave up and thought about just making a gun that could shoot concentrated version of the brown note at single targets, its actually a lot different than the one myth buster did. However when I was chatting up with Pan and some how the discussion ended up about him having some friend in the toy company who sells him names of clients and what they buy, Fault Line ended up being a power generator that was like lighting in a bottle and that's how I'm here. I wanted that battery and it gave me a brief inspiration I needed.

My lighting guns runs on sort of the same sound treatment as the trumpet gun or more accurately the trumpet gun recycled the sound treatment I used for my bulky gun; the various gases under go a sound treatment at different location and intervals, and when fired the gases shoot out as something close enough to a liquid, the movement and sound vibration creating a friction allowing for what I can only describe as "liquid lighting" to exist and it behaves a bit like water (at least when vibrated) and it last up to 7 meters and you do not want to touch it.

I walked back to the table to look at my last item, portable stereo. Honestly it was just one giant speaker with a plastic handle with the ends fixed on opposite ends of the speaker, allowing it to be carried like jack-lantern trick-or-treat bag. I turned it on grabbed a blue tooth electronic watch, I check to see if I had a signal. I nodded as I turned the stereo off. This is my trump card and it scares the hell out of me.

I built it just because I caught a glimpse of what Greg reads in computer class. Some sort of comic book with cowboys and some sort cripple who shoots his nails, I'm not sure what it was about but that inspired me to create this. I wasn't even thinking of away to weaponize it, that's just the way it came. I adjusted it a bit so that, in case I can't recover it, I can blow the battery up with my watch to destroy the essential bits and to turn it on. The function of this device built on a whim…I honestly have no idea how to even defend MYSELF against it, let alone how anyone else could.

Dragon, the best tinker in the world, probably could if she remote-pilots her suit. Maybe her and Armsmaster could find away to do it if they could record the frequency, meaning next time I used it I had to do something that would prevent that. The bay's local shield heroes probably aren't able to defend themselves against it, after all they can hear just fine with their shields on. Shaterbird from the psychotic mass-murdering group Slaughterhouses 9 might be able to (if I had the opportunity to get close enough), if she knew to counteract the sound wave before hand but I already thought of that and that just means she's creating it and it still effects her. Bonesaw, the best biological tinker on earth might alter the brain but even then I doubted it, maybe she could alter the body to react better to it. Assault, a local protectorate mover who can manipulate kinetic energy, might but I seriously doubt it. Velocity and Shadow Stalker are breaker-movers who can shift their body into a state where physics react differently to them, the former being able to move fast and hits are nothing to him but his hits are practically nothing either, the later can phase through walls and objects, so they might be immune, but that could also mean they are potentially super sensitive to the frequency as well. Aegis, a ward with Alexandria package of flight, strength, and durability might handle the frequency well thanks to his adaptive biology, but whether that actually applied to his brain or not isn't really known, maybe not immunity but might be able to adapt to the frequency's effects on his body. No way to know until I get to that bridge I guess.

I walked back to the laptop and sat down on the inflatable chair. Pan replied back saying that he didn't really have a list. Just grab whatever catches my eye and he'll see what it cost, in the hands of the right party of course. I shrugged as I looked at my other projects. I sighed as I looked at the data my boom box recorded, I got a wide arrange of information from variable that were constantly shifting and moving, humans probably, and some that remained more or less the same. The other purpose for my boom box was mapping through echolocation, like a dolphin or bat. Sure there were some programs like that but I couldn't find one to download and the currents ones required you to be IN the room you wanted to map. So I had to make my own, sadly. I worked a little bit on a program that would take all data collected from the stereo and turn it into a 3D rendition of the area. I rubbed my eyes in frustration, at most I got "walls" and geometric shapes, nothing like the movies or what I assume other _true_ tinkers could do. Still the data on the moving shapes could help me later in my tinker career. I only need to write more helper functions and complex instructions to shape the program into what I want it to be.

I checked on the other data, the one for electronics, and found something interesting. I got data from the usual stuff you would expect to be in a nightclub: laptops, cash registers, tap beer dispensers or whatever they're called, phones, DJ's equipment like turntables, ECT., stuff I have gotten before, but I also found other unusual data for stuff I haven't encountered. Tinker tech my mind quickly put together. That's understandable; Fault Line is using tinker power generators, so of course she had to have other tinker tech lying around. But from what I can tell when I cross-referenced the location on the geographic data, testimonies and blueprint, it was coming from areas outside of the predicted office with the desired tinker tech. I shrugged. It was on the way so I could afford a look. But the weirdest thing I got were error messages on some of the recorded data. I shook my head. I could go through it later and pick it apart. I checked the time and sighed. Less than hour until midnight.

"No point prolonging this," I said to myself.


	2. Chapter 2

Again, feel free to take any ideas you like. Any who I just hope i did this right. [edit] I edited this chapter, I was on a rush to get it out of my head so i could focus for an exam.

I DONT OWN WORM

* * *

I stood by the entry of the building, peeking at the bouncer who scared off a few people who thought they could sneak in through the back. I leaned away from sight and looked at my hand. I had four in-ear buds, two were synched up and designed to listen into any frequency, it didn't matter if you were the army or a super tinker, if you are broadcasting anything my boom box will pick it up and relay it to my ear buds. Sadly I still don't have an accurate way to tell what I'm listening into, I have a small knob on my custom utility belt, really just a belt with hooks and straps, I can switch to a random frequency like the radio or a phone call and if I find a the frequency the club uses and then if they change it I have to find it by flipping through random frequencies all over again.

I glanced at the end of the hallway, I moved the stuff downstairs, and set it up in a room that overlooked the road at the other side of the building, away from the club. My plan of retreat was simple, after I grab what I came for, maybe extras, run back in, run into a room, shove what I can into a suit case, regardless (as much it wounds me) if it'll damage my equipment, throw it out a window a get on a ride. I just hope Pan picked a good getaway driver. He should be here shortly so let's hope it's a good guy. I looked back to my hands.

While listening in on others would be great, it didn't protect my ears from loud noises and harmful or simply irritating frequencies, granted with my trump card nothing would be of any help but even so I want my hearing intact. This is where my other two ear buds come in. They were basically a volume on real life, again with the knob on my belt, it also naturally filters out harmful sounds and frequencies, it's even better then the stuff people sell for concerts, a lot better. I'm still working a feature that can let me hear stuff from faraway but its not like I really need it, yet. I need to combine the two buds eventually.

I glanced out again. I agreed with my previous statement, I'd like my hearing intact. I put away the buds for listening in on other's in my pocket and plugged in my choice and took a deep breath. I checked my watch. Five minutes to midnight. I nodded to myself as I walked out the building door.

My footsteps felt heavy; it wasn't because I had my trumpet gun hanging by left hip or because I had the trump speaker bouncing off my ass (not comfortable) just bellow my empty backpack, or the fake looking liquid electricity gun (need a better name), it was that I was actually attacking someone for the first time, and I might accidently kill them. I walked toward the bouncer who seemed to be smoking without a care in the world. I froze when the door opened and three people walked out. The bouncer turn to look at the three, one guy, with jeans and heavy long shirt, I realized, was being thrown out.

"HEY LET GO OF ME."

"Tell Coil if he wants to see Faultline, he should call." Coil, a guy who hires unpowered mercenaries, he is one of the three (real) powers in the bay. Though no one really knows what his goals are. I kept walking forward. By the time I was close one of the bouncers in the group noticed me. "Hey, check it out," he said and all three bouncers and the mercenary on the floor turned to look at me. I must look like a cosplayer, some of them chuckled right away as I kept walking. The one who had been outside smoking addressed me.  
"Look kid I don't know who told you but I'm not let-" he didn't get to finish as I pulled the trigger. He didn't have time to react as the liquid lighting hit him.

"WHOA/SHET!" the two bouncer yelled, one reaching for his what I could only assume was a gone while the other was reaching up to his ear, sadly I hadn't let go of the trigger. My aim quickly changed to them and neither were able to reach their goal. I let go of the trigger as the two fell for the floor, twitching and letting out incoherent sounds. That was easy, I didn't even have to turn the stream into wide loops! I aimed my gun at the mercenary who had his gun clutched in his two hands, trained on me. I walked forward as he stood up. Adrenaline pumping through me as I walked forward; I wanted to shoot-I wanted to pull the trigger, at the same time I wanted to run, whether it was forward or backward it didn't matter, I just wanted to move fast! Still, I calmed myself. I took a deep breath than another as I stopped moving.

For a while neither of us moved. We just pointed at each other. I swallowed a lump in my throat. I relaxed my gun and called out to him.

"A-are you with Coil. Mercenary guy?" His brow went up at that. After a moment when he saw that I wasn't moving, my gun aimed at the ground, he slowly lowered his gun.

"What of it?" He asked back. I sighed in relief as I moved to the bouncer who was outside smoking.

"Just checking," I said, "you mind checking those guys, its my first time out and using this on actual people. I rather not have a kill count yet," I didn't see or hear his reply as I crouch down, letting my guns touch the floor. I took out a small circular mirror I had scavenged from the apartment I was in, the mirror was cracked but it could still do its function. I put close to the bouncer's mouth and my shoulders sagged in relief when it fogged up.

"He's alive," I said as I stood up. The mercenary was by the two bouncer, gun still pointed at ground but in my general direction.

"They're scorched a bit but their fine," he said standing up. "You a cape," he asked eyeing me.

"Yeah," I answered.

"…What's your gimmick?"

"Gimmick? Oh," I said as I realized he was eyeing my gear: jeans, a used bullet resistant vest (can take hit but it hurts apparently and it came blood, gross) over a jacket, a bandana with the American flag as decoration (really cheap), and my dad's old ski goggles (it was very stuffy even in this weather) that fit over my glasses. "I don't have one plus I don't think I need one. I'm a bit more practical."

"I see," he said, still weary of me, "you got a name?"

"Kinda, V3," I replied.

"Veetree?"

"Vibration." I clarified loudly, figuring it was probably the club's music affecting his hearing.

"Oh."

"Yeah, originally I wanted Sound Bite, but it's taken by a hero in Canada."

"I see…What's the three for?"

"Vibration has three syllables," I said with a shrug. His brow went up at that. "I doubt another cape would want that particular name."

"I see…so what are you? Hero? Villain?"

"Mercenary," I replied. "I might do hero-ing on the side, but on my terms. Is there something inside Coil wants?"

"Again, why do you want to know?"

"Faultline has something I want, I'm getting it, and if Coil wants something-I might be able to get it on my way out," I replied honestly.

"And you decided to do it tonight of all nights?"

"If put it off any longer I probably never go out," was it really that big of deal?

"I see…what's stopping me from just following in after you?"

"I'm a tinker," I said waving my gun which just got a gun pointed right at me again. "My specialty basically revolves around sound."

"Could've fooled me," he said, granted my liquid lighting gun doesn't exactly sound like a sound based weapon.

"Kind of the point," I answered, hey work with what you got. "Keep people guessing until the very end. And a nightclub with loud sounds…yeah, god help anyone who isn't me."

He seemed to relax, he put a hand to his ear and seemed to nod, "if your sure," I got the feeling he wasn't talking to me. "From my employer," he said pointing to his ear and putting his gun away, "Faultline is a having a meeting with another party over a very sensitive bit of information, my employer would like to know as much detail as he can. Though admittedly, a lot of our attempts have failed."

"Good thing you guys are out then."

"Maybe," he said with a shrug. "Though next time you might want to reconsider how you approach things."  
"What do you mean?" He pointed behind me, I turned to look and saw a red light coming off from a building half a block to the right of the building I was in, I saw a hand being waved. A sniper. Wow, glad I didn't shoot the merc, "I-I see." I said and before I could turn around a felt a hand on me, I jumped only to see the merc grinning.

"Yeah." He answered, "you really are new at this aren't you?" I didn't reply, I fucked up. First there was a sniper so if they really wanted to they could take me down without a fight, I'd probably kill myself though, and I took my eyes off the guy with the gun pointed at me and he got super close, oh wow I fucked up. I shook my head as I moved to the door.

"Right," I grumbled.

"How does my employer contact you," he asked as I walked.

"Pan Pizza, that's an alias a broker I'm in contact with uses, he can purchase my services through him." I answered as put my hand on the doorknob, I was about to open it when and I thought of something. "Out of curiosity, what am I looking at? In there I mean."

The merc for his part, smiled, a smug smile…and then he walked away. God damn it. Well whatever, its not like I was going to know anyway. I tried the door, and it was oddly locked, was it auto lock? I shrugged slight letting the L2gun, new name I decided, hang with my right hand on the trigger, I used me left to get my sonic screwdriver that was attached to my "utility" belt with a strap and used it on the door. I smirked, thirteen seconds and the door unlocked, I quickly opened the handle and made my way inside, feeling the door click, probably locking itself again. Glad it wasn't tinker tech.

As soon as I was inside I could immediately feel the speakers assaulting my body with vibrations. Honestly it felt like I was casually listening to music while my body "felt" the music. So glad I picked saving hearing instead of listening in. I walked down the hall. From what I remember, the blue prints say that the hall way leads right back to the dance floor; right behind the stairs I need to go. People say that there's a DJ but they never see him, and the blueprint say there's a room underneath the stairs so I'm taking a very hopeful guess here.

I found the door, I rushed down the hall, thankfully not seeing anyone. The door was in another hallway, right was bathrooms, left was an exit to the dance floor. Empty, I nodded to my self. I checked the door, locked, of course, god my L2gun was heavy. Quickly I used the sonic screwdriver and the door unlocked in three seconds. I opened it to see a man in his underwear, white t-shirt, and headphones with his eyes glued to a laptop. He turned to look at me, giving me a weird a look, the same one the bouncers gave me. He was about to say something, probably to tell me to get the hell out. He didn't get the chance.

I fired. He flew back, his white shirt scorched as he twitched on the ground. I closed the door, and moved to his laptop, thankful he was using Bluetooth headphones so the equipment didn't go anywhere. I got a flashdrive out from my utility built, plugged it in to his computer, god I wanted it, but it was not to be. It needed to stay for my plan to work. I quickly duplicated a virus and few other files onto the computer; really the virus was to erase the files when someone accesses the computer again. The files? A song that would loop only it was playing loud frequencies that leave people death for a while and disoriented and a headache. When I was done I collected the flashdrive then I walked back to the door, noticing the lock was the type that made it very easy to accidentally lock yourself out. I locked it, walked out and close the door.

I made my way to the dance floor.

Here's where it gets tough. According to the testimonies there's a bouncer at the bottom and top of the stairs, a bunch of girls passed up from buying Newter drug, then, there's the parahuman. I have to time it just right. Hit the bouncer fast, run up the stairs just as the beat drops, that's when the loop begins.

The song started playing. I moved forward, turned the corner to go up the stairs, only to notice a crowd. Huh.

I kept moving, as I got closer to see two people keeping the crowd off the stairs. I froze. There was a guy in white full body armor with clocks standing next to guy dressed as a high-tech knight. The nightcored lyrics started:

"The bass and the tweeters make the speakers go to war! Ah, the mighty trumpet brings the freaks out to the floor!"

It was Clockblocker and Gallant. They were keeping people away barely touching them but making sure they didn't go upstairs. Now she understood what the mercenary meant and maybe even why the bouncer really thought she was a cosplayer. I mean I'm wearing a bandana like Miss Militia's. Somehow the wards and probably even the protectorate were having a meeting with Faultline right this very night! It explains the tinker tech. And now there was a crowd with cameras filming and taking pictures. FUCK!

"The bass and the tweeters make the speakers go to war! Ah, the mighty trumpet brings the freaks out to the floor!"

Well I can't back out now. I'm already in this. I took a deep breath and kept going forward.

"Tell me, tell me, where the freaks at!"

Clockblocker saw me and nudged Gallant, I couldn't help but stiffen and moved my gun to level on my chest.

"Tell me, tell me, where the freaks at-"

His chest seemed to heave, laughing at my gear thinking its cosplay, especially the gun, no doubt. He started walking toward me.

"Freaks at, freaks at, freaks at, freaks at-"

I glanced at Gallant who stared at me as if trying to figure something out. Clockbloker began to raise his hand as he drew closer. I aimed at him and prepared to fire.

"fre-fre-fre-fre-fre-fre-fre-fre-fre-fre-fre"

Gallant rushed forward and pushed Clockblocker away! I fired.

" **TELL ME WHERE THE FREAKS AT!"**

The bass dropped and the loop started just as my L2gun streamed bright green liquid lighting, L2 now, at Gallant. The crowd began to scream, a lot of them holding their ears, some kept filming but were more or less on the floor. Gallant fell back twitching, his armor clearly scorched and probably not the best defense for my gun, even though I did have to hold down the trigger until he went down. Clockblocker seemed to be trying to push himself up while grabbing the side of his head. Did he not have noise cancelation? He looked at Gallant briefly than he looked at me noting I was already aiming at. I fired as he brought his hand up. The L2 hit but it didn't do anything. He had frozen his armor in time.

I wasted no time ignoring him, I didn't know how long it lasted but I didn't have time to find out. I rushed up the stairs to see Miss Militia, a woman with green fatigues and a sash and banadana with the American flag, holding a vibrant black and green glowing gun with one hand while the other was on the table, gun pointed at a person with riot armor like dress, Faultline the person who I'm robbing, holding her own gun at her. Newter, an orange guy with a tail who was shirtless but wore shorts, a case 53, holding his ears, Shadow Stalker on her knee but aiming at him with a cross brow, black armor, a white ballistic mask that held a stern expression, and a camo cloak. Triumph, my worst matchup, wearing a gladiator like costume with a lion mask, was grabbing his ears and screaming something while Gregor the Snail and his finger at him, a morbidly obese man of average height with translucent skin, no really you could see his skeleton, his costume was more or less jeans and a blue shirt with a leather jacket. He was also the first one to notice me. He had a pained expression as he noticed me, the sound affecting him, he eyes seemed to jump, he moved his hands to my direction before I could aim; he didn't get the chance to do anything. Triumph interpreted it has a move, I think, and sent some sort of sound wave at his direction, yay my boom box probably caught it, and sent Gregor flying into a wall. I sent a stream of L2 at him and quickly used my thumb to make the stream propagate into large loops, slightly larger than a hula-hoop. The straight stream hit Triumph catching everyone's eyes before the loops caught both Miss Militia and Newter, who promptly twitched after a good dose and fell limp. I turned my aim to Faultline, it was clear she was surprised and he power did not help here, the loops caught her and as a bonus it caught Gregor who was beginning to stand back up. Both fell in awkward positions. Sadly I lost track of one person.

An arrow hit my chest, the force pushing me against the railing while I grabbed the arrow with my left hand. Shadow Stalker started running at me if a bit unsteady with a war cry.

With all the strength I could muster in my right arm I brought the L2gun up as I pulled the trigger. Shadow Stalker seemed to want to dodge but thankfully I still had the volume up to make the loops. A loop caught her left leg as she tried to dodge. She shrieked as her body twitched on the floor, giving me enough time to get my hand under the arrow and grab the gun with both hands. I lowered the volume and aimed the stream at her and she was down for the count.

"Fuck," I muttered. That was too close. I let the gun hang a bit as I pulled the arrow out of my bullet resistant vest with a good deal of effort…it was actual metal tipped arrow, not a syringe like her wiki said she was supposed to carry…the wards really are a time bomb. "Thank you body armor," I said tossing the arrow down the stairs. I saw a lot of files and paper on the table. Cursing that I had both guns straps around my neck, I simply grabbed them and tucked them into my pants and tightened the utility belt. I dropped the trump speaker on the floor, slightly hidden by a table and then I turned to walk to the door that led to Faultline's office with my L2gun up, I assumed it led to the office at least. As I got close it opened to reveal a person wearing a gas mask in a red suit, Spitfire.

"HEY WHY IS IT SO LO-" she seemed to be asking about the loop while holding the side of her head when she noticed me, and how everybody else was down. "SHIT!" She tried to reach for her mask for some reason; according to Pan she was the newest member of Faultlines's group and could literally spit out a really hot flames, metal and concrete hot, so maybe she needed to open a hatch or something. I didn't know, I simply pulled the trigger before she could do anything. Like Gallant it took a while before she went down.

Mentally I was panicking as I passed her. I was pretty sure I was almost empty, I mean it three long cans don't last that long if you use the way I did, even if the streams were small like a water gun's (not the cheap pistol). I saw a door to my left open with a girl with a maze cloak and white mask, she was curled up and rocking back and forth on one of the two beds holding her ears. I won't lie, I felt guilty as I shot her and watched her go down.

I sprinted down the hall to a door with a glass window. Locked. Three seconds with a sonic screwdriver and I was in. Right now my current concern was Clockblocker freezing the door, trapping me inside, so I had to hurry. The room was fairly large for an office, she had a wooden desk that had a good shine, many books and ledgers thrown about, lamps instead of light bulbs, and a computer all connected to a glass square container in the corner. I moved to it, pressed my gloved hand against it, noticing how hot it was. It looked like a glass battery with a glowing fat cylinder inside. I quickly unstrapped my L2gun and trumpet gun, took out my backpack. I had a few chemical glow sticks, cheap and lasted only half hour, basically a dollar each, I broke them all and tossed them everywhere. I took a hold of my trumpet gun as I walked towards the glass power generator, found a switched that turned it off, the lights went out and I started blasting the box with my trumpet gun. I felt the vibration, concentrated on it to help calm myself. I had just attacked the wards and the protectorate along with Fault Line and her crew, and I felt really bad about shooting Labyrinth. That girl had mental problems, that's all Pan was able to tell me for the amount I was able to afford, some days she was okay, others she was so-so, and then she had bad days, really bad days. I'll send her something.

After my gun stopped blowing, I pulled the trigger but nothing came out. I banged it against a desk a couple of time, then I took a plasma ball, stuck it to the speakers on the trumpet and activated it. I made sure to wipe so it didn't have any prints on it, hopefully I was thorough enough, after a few beeps there was a bright light. As soon as the light died I dropped the gun and shoved the now cooled glass power generator into the bag, realizing some wire were connected to it, I just snapped the off since they were frozen enough. After it was in my bag I zipped it up, opened a new zipper and threw in the files I gathered earlier. I honestly didn't know what else to take: Faultline had books, really good books from the brief glances I took, she had ledgers and manila folders and a few files around. I just took the files and two ledgers and hoped to god they were worth something.

I put my back pack on and grabbed my L2gun and ran down the hallway. The loop stopped, I noticed. I felt dread at the realization I came to. The cavalry had arrived. I took out two capsules speakers and set them on a timer as I ran out into the patio that was the second floor that I now noticed had quite a few bed/couch things that looked oddly comfortable. In front of one said couch/bed was Clockblocker checking on Miss Militia. He snapped his head towards me. I threw one capsule at him and the other off the balcony at whoever was down stairs; he jumped away as it went off. Then he he stood up walked towards it then kicked it away, wait what? So he did have noise reduction or something?

Then a hook came up locked itself in place on the railing, it pulled up a man in a midnight-blue full body armor with silver highlights complete with a blue helmet that held a black V shaped visor and revealed his mouth and beard that connected with his moustache, Armsmaster. Of course the best (true) tinker in the city would be here and not be affected by the capsules.

Quickly, I activated the trump assist and the assist un-collapsed on the ground, I still had to work a bit to keep the gun levelled. Seeing this, Armsmaster brought his halberd to bear and pointed it at me. Could he shoot things? Clockblocker just took out sheets of paper.

The head of Arms master halberd changed to something else, from a grappling hook that disappeared like something out of startrek and something like a canon with an edge to melee with took its place…well he is fighting against people with guns so maybe some sort of projectile weapon is reasonable.

"Identify yourself," came his gruff voice.

"V-V3," I started a bit, coming to a standoff with Armsmaster was not on my to do list, I made sure to keep Clockerblocker in my sights, I had the volume raised so that it could do a large loops to catch both of them.

"V3?" Clockblocker asked.

"I wanted Soundbite but it was taken."

"Still, V3?"

"Vibration," I responded with a shrug.

"And the 3?"

"Has three syllables," I replied, again with a shrug, "figured no one else would like that name."

"Pretty lame," he commented.

"Enough," Armsmater said, "Are you aware of the power ratings?"

"Yes and, before you ask, no" I replied, "its weird. I'm mixture between Tinker and Thinker, but at the same time I'm not a true tinker or true thinker, just something in between."

"How does that work?" Clockblocker asked as he edged in a bit closer.

"I work better by modifying things I have access to, things people can actually copy and mass produce, I work better with data and slowly making improvements. But I still get the desire to build my own stuff, it's frustrating," I talked, hoping maybe something would happen that would give me an opening I needed.

"Let me guess, your specialty is energy," Clockblocker asked, probably intent on keeping me talking, I was cursing the fact that my watch was on my left hand and can't trigger the button. Luckily I might be able to press the button against the L2gun.

"Acoustics," I replied. He paused.

"The genre?"

"Sounds," Armsmaster clarified, "initiator, transmission, and effect, with a specialty like that you could have built a bomb. A lot of potential."

"Not intent having a kill count if I can avoid it," I answered, "but I can see where your going, I can worm my way into other tech trees."

"I see, are you aware of what you just did?" He asked and before I could answer he continued with a stern voice. "You assaulted three Wards and two Protectorate members, you attacked civilians-"

"Really," I cut in loudly as I waved at the mercenaries with my left hand, thank you Armsmaster.

"The bouncers unconscious outside and the man in the electronics room downstairs," he replied.

"Oh," I said as I rest my left hand on the top of the gun, I can press the button by turning my hand now.

"Assault and battery, trespassing, theft if I'm reading the situation correctly, and finally what can be construed as a violation of the unwritten rules to unmask capes. You have two options. Given your powers, I'm sure you know what they are."

"…Ward or prison?"

"Pretty much," Clockblocker said, still inching closer.

"How'd go with Shadow Stalker?"

"Eh could be better," he admitted.

"Like not shooting people with real arrows?"

"Your one to talk," he replied.

"Shooting an electrical current isn't harmless either," Armsmater said. Well he got me there.

"Point taken. But I do have the option of activating my trump card," I said using my left hand to point at the kinda-sorta hidden speaker, turning it slightly to press the button. The Speaker blasted off letting out a rambling sound that vibrated through my body. Three seconds later a bolt of light from Armsmater's halberd destroyed it. Crap.

"That was a mighty trump card," Clockblocker said sarcastically.

"Yep, have a nice fall," I said closing my left eye, standing on my right leg.

"What do you mean!" Armsmaster demanded, then a second later both Armsmaster and Clockblocker fell on their left side meanwhile I tried to keep the gun stable as I used it to keep myself up.

"Wha-what's happening!" Clockblocker shouted.

 **"Left no longer exist,"** I replied once I found my balance and pulled the trigger. My trump card? A frequency that sends out vibration that causes Cerebellar ataxia, specifically left side ataxia where you literally can't interpret left anymore, only right. And there's no way to defend against it, not unless you can stop the vibration, something my speaker, before it was destroyed, was created to overcome. It was loud enough that the vibration could go through armor. So if you feel the vibration, you know that the vibration reached your brain and effected it. Also it doesn't last long if its not constantly playing. Luckily this time it was playing with a frequency that would confuse any listening or recording device that Armsmaster could employ or equip the wards with, but I doubt it would work again if it works the first time. Hopefully it worked the first time.

I nearly jumped when a bolt of light flew past me. The L2 loop managed to hit Armsmaster and clip Clock blocker but the stream stopped before I could remove my finger. Uh oh.

"Shit!" I cursed out loud but neither of them moved; Armsmaster just groaned and Clockblocker was looking at me but was frozen. Huh, he froze his suit again.

"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? YOUR OUT?" He yelled. A few moments later and my left was there again. Armsmaster was pushing himself up and I was out of ammo. Shit. Quickly I broke the assist off and crouched next to Newter, put my right fingers in his mouth and rushed Armmaster hoping the saliva didn't soak through my gloves and into my flesh. I pressed it to his mouth, it didn't get in and he grabbed my hand with enough force I could almost swear that he was trying to crush it, but he fell limp. Fuck that's potent. I sagged in relief.

I found a nearby trashcan, I took of glass of blue colored liquid I assumed was alcohol pored in took off my glove and threw it in. Grabbed a plasma pressed it and dropped it in without taking the wrapping off. After a few beeps the can was filled with a brief fire, it scorched everything and hopefully did its job. I was about to go when I thought of something. I used my sonic screwdriver and quickly scanned Armsmaster's halberd. "Hey what are you doing?" Clockblocker asked but I ignored him. By default my sonic screwdriver scans things in order to determine how to vibrate it correctly.

After that was done I took a look at Newter, I wanted to take some of Newter's blood or something but I didn't have a vial or a needle, but I did have a bunch of parahuman with items I could make money off of, but its not like I had the time to collect them. Maybe next time. Huh…did I want a next time?

I walked down the stair in thought when I heard. "Vee, GET BACK HERE!" Right. I started to run grabbing my gun with both hands. Gallant was still down; some people were actually still around and recording, wow. One person saw me and got close with a camera. It was stupid but I just won against Armsmaster. I thought why the hell not? I put one foot on Gallant's back and did a quick pose. A lot of people took picture while some filmed.

"HEY GOT THE FUCK BACK HERE VEE!" I turned to see Clockblocker running downstairs.

"Oh shit," I muttered as I started running to the back with Clockblocker hot on my heels.

"VEE!"

I a made left ran forward then a right towards the backdoor. Huh, Armsmaster left the door open, at least I think it was him. As I got close to the door I could hear Clockblocker running after me. I was out of ammo and my capsules didn't work on him, crap.

As soon as I got to the door I grabbed it and closed it hoping the auto-lock still worked. I started running towards the building I was in earlier. "GET BACK HERE!"

I turned to see Clockblocker jumping off the steps and chasing me. I cursed.

I made it to the building and closed the door with a glass a window, sadly it required a key on both sides. Quickly I used the sonic screwdriver's new feature to lock the door just as he got to it. Once I heard a click I turned and run.

"FUCK! Is that a fucking sonic screwdriver!"

I didn't answer I just kept running, I ran a bit faster when I heard him bust the door open. I turned right on the hallway then left into an open door that I left open. I locked it.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck," I kept muttering, as I made my way to a table with my stuff. I had already dissembled the power skimmer and placed it into the suitcase I quickly grabbed the boom box and threw it into the suitcase. Next I shut my laptop and threw it in.

A bang at door caused me to jump and yelp.

"FOUND YOU!" I heard his muffled cry as he started to break open the door open.

"SHIT," I cursed, I wanted to throw in my L2gun but I didn't have time, I just zipped it closed and pulled it off the table. With a quick spin I was able to throw it out the window-shattering it. I forgot to open it. I quickly opened up the broken window just as clockblocker burst through the door. I glanced back and notice he was on the floor a good meter or so away but he was quickly scrambling to his feet at me. I jumped off the window, almost fell forward but I just used it to run to my suitcase, I grabbed it noticing a wheel had broken off, fuck. I looked left and right…WHERE THE HELL WAS THE DRIVER?

* * *

Author's note:

for those of you who question my music, yes i have poor taste and don't know of a good one from 2008, also Alexandra read Pact before the start of the story, so yes the JOJO reference counts.


	3. Chapter 3

Read and review, might make another chapter but don't count on it. [edit] I edited this chapter, I was on a rush to get it out of my head so i could focus for an exam.

GOOD NIGHT! ENJOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY!

I don't own Worm!

* * *

I heard a thump and a grunt; I turned to see clockblocker landing a few feet behind me, only, unlike my landing earlier, he fell on his ass.

"Shit," I cursed as I ran to my right, down the street, my suitcase making a scraping noise as I dragged it behind me. I could hear Clockblocker catching up to me. He was more fit than I was and he IS going to catch up. FUCK, WHERE THE HELL IS MY DRIVER!

Then from a random alleyway in front of me, the mercenary from early calmly walked out pulling out a gun, some pistol, and pointed it in my direction and fired three quick shots short succession. I froze, my suitcase hitting the back of my legs. I turned to look at Clockblocker, he was fine, unharmed but he too stopped moving and put his hands up.

"V3, so I see you made it out," the merc said with a small smile. I didn't like it.

"Files," I quickly said, "they were talking about it upstairs. I have it! I'll trade it-"

"Lemme stop you right there," he said loudly. Oh no. "See my employer is very impressed with your work," he continued as more men began to pour out of the alley. Oh god no. "He'd like to meet you." Please no. "He's interested in...Purchasing your services." S-shit, just, shit….

The deep web, stubborn tinker recruitment, mercenaries, lots of guns; it all hit me and I honestly couldn't help but tremble in fear.

"AH AH!" he said as he fired again making me jump, "Clockblocker, while we don't take hostages, or kill wards we can however put a bullet in your leg and your arm. Try to get close to her again and believe me, all of us," he gestured to all the men, "will make good on that."

"I-I don't know," I said, trying to stall time for something, maybe even create a window for Clockblocker to tag me. "I mean he could use his blood as a medium to freeze time. It is a part of him."

"Yeah," Clockblock was quick to agree, I mean he could freeze himself but…. "holy fuck yeah, why didn't I think of that. Specks of blood might be enough to freeze people."

"Seriously?" I asked, slightly looking at him from my peripheral, "you never thought of that?"

"Not emo," he replied with a shrug.

"Well I'm not worried, it's a slanted road, blood'll go down," the mercenary replied, "also if you think of making a break for it," he pointed behind him where there was a red light, a man waved his arm, the sniper. "I think the best thing for all of us is to wait for your ride, Vee," he said, "Clockblocker goes home free and you…have a job," he replied. Fuck. I really fucked up.

"Should've have planned this night better miss," one of the guys with a machine gun of sorts said. I should have. Fuck. Were they the one who scared away the driver. "The driver should be here soon." After he said that sand fell.

A giant monster suddenly appeared, a grey giant with leathery skin topped with grey crags that spiked on him, he had one giant red eye. Behemoth.

"ENDBRIGNER!" someone shouted and everyone quickly aimed and started firing at the monster. Jesus what the hell is with my luck! WHY IS AN ENDBRINGER IN BROCKTON BAY! In front of me of all people?

Then I noticed something. Every time the thing was hit chunks of sand fell of it, also it didn't move nor did it make a sound. Suddenly I felt a hand grab me and I was dragged in a direction of the window I jumped out of along with my luggage, sand fell to reveal a man with jeans and a white jacket wearing a white shiny colombina mask, "lets go!" I followed him not knowing what the hell was going on. Sand fell in front of me to reveal a bright yellow sports car. "Get in!" he yelled, I quickly went for the back door, opened it and shoved my heavy suitcase in as I followed with it. As soon as I closed the door he sped off. I turned to see the Behemoth collapse into sand, the mercenaries in a momentary daze before they decided to chase after us, sending shots our way. Clockblocker however was running into an alleyway while tagging a few soldier as he ran out of site.

"Fuck, my ears," I heard the driver muttered. Once again, I'm glad I chose in-ear buds that protected my hearing.

Feeling my body jerk as the man made a turn, I held on tightly to something. I turned and moved a bit forward. "Who are you," I asked as I held on for my dear life as he made another turn.

"Fell, your driver," he answered as he sped up to a dangerous speed, "Jesus what the hell was all that? Why was there a ward after you and a bunch guys?"

"Palanquin, the night club," I began to explain as I noticed he had whitish-yellow short spiky hair, "the wards and protectorate were meeting Faultline about something, it took me by surprise. I took everyone down but Clockblocker. Armsmaster showed up but I took him down too, ran out of ammo," I answered as I took off my backpack and place it on the floor, letting my racing heart calm down, but Fell's driving was making it difficult.

"Shit," he said. "talk about a fuck up. The guys with guns-what about them?"

"Oh I met one who was being thrown out, he's Coil's guy. I let it slip that I was a-a tinker."

"…You're a fucking idiot," he said as he drifted, I couldn't help but yelp as I tried to hold on to something.

"Yeah I know fucked up, but what was that? The sand, the Endbringer, the car, what was all that?"

"My power," he answered making another sharp turn. He rolled down the window and put his hand out. "I can make illusions using sand, solid illusions, sadly they can't do damage unless I pour a lot on top of people. That Endbringer was bear bones; if I had time and concentrated I could have made it move and talk." Wow that sounds cool.

"Thanks, but where were you?"

"Parked outside waiting for a girl with tinker tech, took me by surprise with that junk," he briefly thumbed at my L2gun. Fuck, it was that fake looking. He put his hand back inside as he slowed down and made a turn calmly. He snapped his fingers and sand fell again, the bright sports car was now black.

"I had no idea what was going on," he continued as he came to a stop at a red light as PRT vans cross in front of us. "I kept hidden with my sand, heard the man speak. I figured the girl was you and I acted."

"I see, thanks," I said once more.

"Just pray to god there isn't a bullet hole in my car, believe me, I will make you pay for it." Suddenly the car let out a ringing noise, like a cellphone. Fell pressed a button on a phone that was held in place by a plastic object where the radio is.

"Fell," he said as green light came on and he drove forward like a normal person.

"Its me," a voice at the end said, there was a slight accent to it, but I couldn't quite place it.

"Pan," I asked loudly, I never talked to him in person so I had no idea what he sounds like.

"Hey girl, wassup? I saw the videos and picture people posted on PHO. Someone actually had the balls to go upstairs and film what the end result was. Shit, you took out both the heroes and Faultline's crew, and on top of all that, Armsmaster? Your on fire!"

"She missed one," Fell said bitterly, "Clockblocker was on her ass."

"I saw," he probably meant the video someone took of me running. "How'd it end?"

"It was clusterfuck," Fell replied before I could, "a bunch of Coil's guys had ganged up on them and she let it slip that she was a tinker, fucking dumbass. We got away by the skin of our teeth. "

"Coil huh?"

"Y-yeah, I didn't think that would happen, I figured he'd contact you through your Pan Pizza account."

"I see, welp," he said, "Better burn that account."

"Thanks," I said feeling a bit grateful that he was taking what happened into consideration.

"Oh he's not doing it because of you," Fell said figuring out my line of thought, "we hate that asshole. He tried to force me to work for him a year ago. Fucking asshole. To be honest I was not happy coming this shit hole."

"Its my home," I said bitterly.

"Still a shit hole," he replied.

"And he somehow stole information from me, I swear to god... One time I check to see if he got info only I had access to, guaranteed because I forged it. And he had it. I did it again only I didn't call or give it to him. And he didn't know until it was too late. Somehow he can steal information from us if we tell him, then he'd do something and make so that we never told him but he knows."

"But isn't he super rich, I mean all the mercenaries-"

"Vee," Pan said not adding in the 3, "Having information and having no one know you know is a huge advantage. What ever he's doing it's hard to fuck with, so we steer clear of him."

"Oh," was all I could say.

"And you're stuck in this shithole with him," Fell said, and the reality hit.

"Oh fuck," was all I managed to say, I was stuck here with him.

"Out of curiosity what the hell did even he want," Pan asked.

"Oh I took some files from Faultline, she was meeting with the protectorate over it. Also I stole a few more folder and files from her office and a couple of ledgers."

"Nice, I'll see what they're worth later. How about a preview so I can see what I'm working with," he requested.

"yeah sure," I dug the stuff out, "Um, one ledger has number and I think business names,"

"Not really that valuable but knowing what she owns and makes and potentially launder money through is, I think two people in the Brockton might want that."

"The other one is just some sort of report on her team, the case 53 ones, its a bit detailed."

"If its detailed, i mean really detailed, then a lot of parahuman scientist will want it, maybe even a few geneticist."

"Cool, um the rest of the files and folder is her doing research, list of scientist, research on case 53s, not just the ones on her team...Um..." I trailed off as I skimmed the pages, "oh found one, something about a girl with luck alteration or something, there's a close up of a tattoo with a C on it, I think it's a c, its looks weird."

"Oh I heard that, some girl got very lucky at a bunch of casino and they suspect she is a parahuman; turns out she is and is now has a bounty. C though, that's Cauldron's mark, any deformities?"

"No, she's very pretty, looks really good actually."

"Cauldron but no mutations," he said probably pondering, "Interesting...anything on her powers, recorded examples?"

"Um...yeah but just photos and speculation on Faultline's end. Small shaker/thinker ability, enough to pull off setting things in her favor."

"Just speculation, huh. Location? Any hints as to where she might be?

"Um...yeah lots actually, no set place though."

"Good good, from the top of my heeeaaad...maybe Cicero might buy that."

"Who?"

"Oh, a thinker who's markets himself as an anti-thinker, his powers sort of makes thinker's powers betray their users in a way that benefits Cicero. Plus the guy has way with words, like really good, hence the name."

"Cicero, the ancient Roman lawyer and politician who set the standard for rhetoric and the reference to Shakespeare's play," I said with a small smile.

"Ding ding, you know your stuff, huh?"

"But doesn't know dick about street smart," Fell snarked.

"Fair. Anything good, like the meeting," Pan continued.

"Um…whoa, yeah this is um, yeah." I said as I skimmed the last files, the one on the table where they were meeting, "its about a cult. Um the one a few towns over, I don't remember the city. The anti-parahuman one."

"I think I know which you mean," he said.

I nodded, fully calm now and feeling a bit tired and the dried up sweat wasn't helping. "According to this some of them are mind controlling members through parahuman powers and using them to make and ship out drugs, some smuggle weapons, and they even sell their member identities for other people to use…jesus, the cult is a farm for everything."

"Huh," Pan said, "yeah I know which one it is, it's cult that worship's Siris, some guy with a good hat, he has a bunch of places all around The States. There have been allegations about drugs but nothing concrete, this is news to me."

"Why would the Protectorate talk to Faultline about this?"

"Comparing notes," Fell answered, "they have her marked as a villain and they know where she is. She gives them info, avoids doing trouble here, and they turn a blind eye."

"Wow," I said, "so they just leave her alone? Just like that?"

"Like Fell said," Pan explained further, "compared to the other trouble makers in that city, she's really tame. If she gives useful info and stay out of trouble, they ignore her and her club and treat her as a private security firm. Anything else?"

"Yeah they're mining stuff, can't tell what it is, some new weird ore and there's…the hell!"

"What?" both guys asked.

"Says here they're growing something, some weird human-plant hybrid. There's a picture of the end result." I said eyeing the thing, guys loading this green human like things with roots coming out of their bodies like hair on trucks.

"Sounds like Blasto's work," Pan said, "but he's nowhere near them, hell I'd even say that he probably wouldn't even do business with them."

"It get's better, people who eat it can do things, like…." I stopped as i kept reading.

"…Like?"

"Talk to each other without speaking, or so they suspect, jump higher, punch harder, is like they get parahuman powers or something that enhances them."

"Tell me more about that," Pan said suddenly more professional.

"Um coil wanted this because this farm, it doesn't say where it is, the people who are suspected to have eaten it are basically at olympic levels of human fitness and can exert themselves to go beyond that. Um in the photo, the men handling this thing, they looked foreign like, I don't know, how else to put, just foreign."

"Huh…yeah that-that'll earn you a pretty penny. Some wet-wear tinkers will want this, not to mention a pseudo parahuman drug…any drawbacks?"

"Lots they suspect, like mind control, something like a zombie or a bokor, maybe a parasite. They honestly suspect lots of bad things. I mean, the people who they suspect ate this thing look a bit plantlike themselves."

"Hmm," Pan hummed, "this is dangerous shit. I think lots of people will want this, I'll have to talk to few other brokers but this will fetch a high price."

"How did Faultline get this," I couldn't help but question.

"She's a professional," Fell said, "plain and simple." He said as if it was that easy, "This your stop, right?" I saw the street.

"Yeah," I answered, "Pan you said the password for the apartment is 483, right?"

"Yep," he said with a small sigh, "to be honest I thought you would be in debt to me." Pan got me an apartment on the deal that I would pay it back. I needed a workshop out of the house and the generator might have a tracker. I have to get to work on this thing. "Alright Vee, leave the papers with Fell, I'll get you the cash later, we can discuss how you want later."

"Alright," I answered, grateful that I can think about it more.

"Oh and one last thing," Pan said, "if you want that membership, it's yours. We don't really have a lot of set general rules, mostly just rules regarding certain people or types of parahumans, for tinkers an important one is "do not sell to outside of the Trust without permission" for obvious reasons. Oh a big general one is that if we call for something that requires everyone, mostly fighters in the Trust, to be present or available; you must make yourself available. That's usually of one of our own gets captured or off."

"Trust?"

"Guild is taken and would be confusing, club or order is to silly and makes us sound like a schoolyard club. Trust means just that, this is a trust between select individual in the pursuit of personal gains, so we call ourselves The Trust. Mostly some people just see it as huge network with lots of potential work and lifeline that might actually work. You don't have to answer now, just know that after that stunt you pulled some members think you're worth it. A tad bit green like Fell here says but worth keeping as a member if only for the future potential. Well night, I'll talk you tomorrow." I left the files and ledgers on the front seat next to Fell, I got out of the car with my stuff and turned to say "good night," but as soon as I closed the door Fell sped off like a bullet.

I sighed, he didn't like me.

* * *

Morning came and it felt amazing. The bed was soft and the sheets felt so good. It was white and had a fluffy comforter. It was a two bedroom apartment with two floors, lots of space, a small Kitchen, laundry machine, furnished with desk and beds along with lamps, and free internet. It was on the top floor, no balcony she didn't need it. That meant windows couldn't be opened but she had AC. It would take awhile, modifying the place, building safeties in, but it was worth it. Only problem was that the rent was 1500 a month and on someone else's name. Well, she might be able to afford it now.

As soon as she got up she walked to a desk turned on her laptop that was a little banged up but okay. She logged on to her PHO account and checked the news. She had made waves. The pictures and videos of her assaulting the nightclub and taking down most of the capes had the chatrooms in an uproar. Many guessed that she was a tinker and were coming up with weird specialties. Some made me smile while others made me shake my head.

Honestly I got lucky last night. Everyone was confused and I took advantage, I kept everyone off balance. It sucked that a lot of people could deal with my tech but that just means I need to improve. Luckily Pan was reliable and Fell was there.

I had a new message from Pan; apparently he went by Peter Pan, at least to me now. He found a quite a few buyers and was able to sell for a lot of money. Sadly that meant he took a 15% commission and some of it was used to pay Fell who had found bullet holes in his car. Oh well.

He also took some money to pay for my apartment and give me fake ownership, complete with a bank account run by someone called "The Numberman," well glad to know I'm not the only one with a bad naming sense. Also some of the money was used to get me new tools, oh and to pull some strings and get me into Arcadia. Arcadia it started off as a charter school, one of the few that actually works, an eventually became a mixture of the two, on account of the uprise of capes. It's a pretty good school, or at least rumoured to be. Plenty of programs, teachers with incentives to do something about bullying, great test results; tuition isn't as high as it would be for a private school but it still might be a problem, considering I went to a free public school because it was easier on dad (and because Emma failed the test for Arcadia), but I could probably get Pan to do something so that I could pay for it. Now the only problems was the wards and some rules to protect them. But hey, good school with a good reputation; it'll be easier to get into college, hopefully.

Of course that all meant one thing...I was broke again...not even a full day, hell not even a full hour of having so much money, and it was just gone...crap I can see why people like Faultline stay mercenaries for a long time. Well...its not like I was originally expecting something different but I figured if I was stealing I might as well end the day with money in my wallet, so to speak...sigh...sometimes I wish my power was making crystals or something, at least then I could sell it.

After everything was settled I went over my data from last night. My new generator didn't have a tracker or anything so I was good. Sadly I need to wait a few days for the tools asked Pan to get me to arrive before I can tinker out like a "true" tinker. The data was just cleaning and working towards what I want, still a hassle but hey its work. The data I got from scanning Armsmaster's halberd was pretty cool, there was SO MUCH CRAP! I-I have no idea how the hell he fit everything inside. I thought it was just some large metal rod with a changeable head, but it had so much stuff inside that I had trouble believing it wasn't some sort of fragile art project, it even had a tiny accelerometer for some odd reason. I'm still sorting through that data and trying to figure out what everything was, figuring things out with sound and what materials resonated with certain sounds is still a bit of chore but steadily I'm making some headway.

I already had a few inspirations from his halberd and Pan said that the Toybox would pay a good money if can clean the data up as much as I can. I don't know much about the Toybox outside of the fact that it was just a group of tinkers living in a pocket dimension making whatever they wanted and selling it. Pan explained that they are basically on thin ice with both the Protectorate and PRT so any copies I make will have to be either paper or on a flashdrive. He's trying to convince his friend that it was worth going the roundabout way. I won't lie, I did feel bad about selling another tinker's work, my tinker influence, but I was, once again broke and if it was the other way around my tinker tech, which anyone could easily reverse engineer, would be added to PRT arsenal and whatever database they had for tinker to access, my thinker influence if I had to guess. They'ed have my complete designs and I'd be left with data I had to cypher through and guess what it was.

Speaking of which, there was the error data, it was still weird but I was able to find the source, sort of. My boom box can find all frequencies given the range and opportunity, it could even catch sound in the sea if given the opportunity, like the Bloop or the Lonely wall call. So it was an advance speaker that catches everything and anything, and the source of the error data was, well, parahumans. After I went over the timestamp in my head as well as referencing the geometric shapes from my echolocation map I found that the errors coincided with the locations of the parahumans. Well it was interesting and worth looking into at least, but still had no idea why I was only getting back errors. Well the only thing i can do is look for other tinker tech that might help decipher whatever the hell I picked up.

I checked the time and figured it was best to get ready and go home. Dad would be suspicious if he didn't meet me for breakfast, or brunch at this point. I was lucky he went out drinking with a few friends last night. I need plan things out better, it was clear that whatever luck I had was running out fast.

As I got in the shower, I thought about the inspirations I got from Armsmaster halberd. If I plan my builds correctly and put together the right projects, it might be fun becoming something like Cicero, a tinker (even if I wasn't a true one) becoming something like an anti-tinker mercenary/hunter. It would profit me in more ways than one….


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys hope you enjoy this, READ, ENJOY, REVIEW!

I don't own Worm

* * *

 _Damnit! Why the hell did I get I get roped into doing this?_ I wondered as I crept through the thick fog, said fog sending a cool chill down my spine, making me shiver uncomfortably. I kept scaling down the rocky yet grassy mountain side with my pistol out.

 _This better be worth it…._

* * *

"What do you think of the flight so far?"

I looked away from my VC to look at the pilot who was drinking a Corona. If I'm being honest, the way he dressed did not inspire any form of confidence in me much less the fact that he was drinking. He just wore white khaki pants with a white t-shirt followed by a red Hawaii button up shirt. The plane wasn't particularly cold but it sure as hell didn't justify that kind of outfit.

"It's pretty cool," I answered, this was actually my third time flying. "I mean I flown coach before but this is way better," I answered, the pilot nodded with a smile.

"Perks of flying private. Get pass security, get off the ground faster, and enjoy the flight in fine comfortable chairs, maybe make a pit stop at an airport near a Cheesecake Factory if you need it."

"I noticed," I said with a small chuckle as I looked down at my half empty takeout of Chicken Bellagio. I wasn't the one who asked for a stop but goshdarnit was I hungry and the pilot assured us that the meal would be picked up and be there when we landed, and it was. We were on the ground for maybe five minutes before we were in the air again. I mean, yeah, the private jet had snacks and drinks for all ages, but this was meal, I mean a big meal, but an actual meal!

"Well, let us know if you need anything," he said tipping his drink at me before he went to talk to the other passengers. I just nodded as he left me alone.

This was Trust airline. On paper, it was a private jet that caters to premium flyers, and it is. Only it requires membership. Trust Membership. While the jet does take on clients who aren't apart of the Trust, it mostly does so for appearances and if trust members don't need flying, gotta make money somehow. Sure, internet makes things easier, but when you have reliable clients it helps a lot more, especially if they pay more for secrecy. There was only four people, me included, on board the aircraft as a passenger, all part of the Trust.

I don't know much about it, but Pan told me that they have really good secretaries and the pay and loose regulations keeps the pilots happy…sigh.

My ride for just a one-way ticket was $2600…this how people stay in the business, but it sure is convenient, I can go anywhere in the east coast I want for that price and avoid security. I turned to see the pilot playing some racing game with one of the passengers. There are two pilots, the plane has an autopilot so just one guy has to look at the instruments. The other pilot was out earlier. I think most of the time they fly together, but I guess they loosen up since its just us Trusties.

I went back to the data in front of my eyes. I already sold the data I had on Armsmaster's halberd to the Toybox but that didn't mean I had it all cleaned up or understood. I was still trying to figure out what a lot of the tech inside the weapon was. Either way it was very slow progress and sometimes I get quick burst of inspiration.

I was also reviewing a few blue prints and data surrounding a certain building a pretty good distance away from the bay. It was my job tonight. I already checked it out earlier and I was just going over the final plans.

Sometimes I'd go over the new weapon I was designing on CAD. I had one on me but it was more or less for personal protection, but I need something more convenient and more reliable. I glanced at the pilot who cheered loudly while a the two passengers groaned.

The passengers, all of us were wearing mask of some sort. Pan did say that the pilots are cool but if it comes down to it, they can't confess what they don't know. It may be a private plane but shit happens. Besides…it wasn't the pilots I had to be wary of.

"Hey, Vee," one of the passengers by the pilot shouted, he had a Mohawk, "up for a round?"

"No thanks, I'm good," I replied.

"Awww! C'monnnn!" He egged on.

"Sorry, my hands are full, I got job tonight," I explained, knowing they were absorbing every bit of information I give them.

For a group called The Trust, there wasn't a whole lot of it. What Pan told me was true, a lot of people see it has nothing but a huge opportunity to network, but obviously there's more to it. There was two clear distinction, the "inner circle," the core members who treated it as a brotherhood of sorts and are responsible for keeping The Trust alive, and then there's us in the "outer circle," the ones just using it to make cash. I'm not sure what the inner circle does, maybe enforcing the invisible hand inside the community? I dunno, but the outer circle has clusters, groups that stick close together. There really isn't any sort of territory that is divided by the Trust, all I know is that if a particular cluster tends to stick around an area, then it's good etiquette to ask for permission to do jobs in that area. People in a cluster simply stick together, maybe not physically or feel like they do, but they tend to fall back on the people in their particular cluster, a form of loyalty. By that definition, I guess I'm part of Pan's small cluster.

"Loosen up Vee," a guy sitting next to me said, he was wearing a meerkat mask I think, "it's just passed noon."

"But I want it to go well," I said, rolling my eyes, damn they are persistent.

"What are you even doing," one of the guys up front asked me, no doubt fishing for info.

"Ah uh, contract," I said as they all groaned.

Pan sort of lucked out with me. Tinkers are either forcibly recruited into gangs, killed, or in the Protectorate and PRT hands, usually the later. Besides me, there's another tinker in The Trust that I know of, she's in Australia I think. Tinkers are either a hit or a miss, they can either equip themselves or equip others. The other tinker is a mixture of the two but tends to lean towards the former whilst I lean more towards the later thanks to me not being a true tinker. Obviously having a tinker in your cluster, especially one like me who's tech is fairly easy to understand and maintain was practically gold, especially if you could monopolize the tinker. But then again, what saved me for a while is that people underestimated what my tech could do.

I didn't really garner much attention from the other groups, a result that I was grateful for, but when TGD from the inner circle commission a piece of tech from me and even paid for the materials and expressed how satisfied he was…after that, everyone more or less started to shadow me.

Pan told me to be careful, odds are that they would try to recruit me into their little cluster. Again, I'm not sure what the inner circle does, but getting their favor seems to be a big thing among us folks in the outer circle. Having a tinker in your group or someone distinguished in the inner circle's eyes is enough to give them a chance. For what? Dunno, and I'm not interested. The payout was free exotic tools and boosted my reputation in positive manner, so I took the job. Besides it was just a sonic heat ray and stuff you could attach to handguns of the similar nature. Nothing I would consider deadly, maybe if you hold someone down long enough you could cook them to death, but still…

Maybe heat interacted in a positive way with TGD's power, dunno, but if the name is anything to go by, odds are I'm better off not knowing.

But now I have a bunch of people who are keeping tabs on me and honestly, I feel like shit is about to hit the fan if I don't fortify or make solid friends to help get around without these guys following me. I'm sure at least one of these guys are actually here to shadow me, everybody else was just trying to get to work.

"Say, you do intel work, right?" The guy with the meerkat mask asked.

"So-so, I also do a few audio jobs, you can talk to Pan all about it, he has my rates," I replied as I kept working.

"Well, I have you here right now and we both have some time before our next job, so…I was wondering if I could commission you to find a good restaurant, you know, just for the two of us." I stopped typing. Was I being asked out?

"Um…not that I'm not flattered but, I think I'm a little young for you," I managed to reply calmly. I mean the guy sounded like he was in his early twenties and I'm barely sixteen!

"Could have fooled me," he said with a shrug, "and I don't mind. It's just a number anyway."

"I see," I said as I resumed working, "sadly I'm busy."

"Oh come on, don't be like that," he tried. Then my phone began to ring. _Thank you, God_ , I nearly mouthed it.

"Sorry, gotta take this," I said as picked up the mouth portion for my mask, clipped it into place, then I pressed a button that activated the air filters which created a sort of comfortable vacuum that stuck the piece to my face. After my full mask in place I pressed a button on the side of my mask and answered the call without having to pick up my physical phone. Yeah, I made adjustment so no one could listen when I talked to others. "Hey."

"Hey Vee," yeah V3 didn't stick with the PRT or Protectorate and V was in full swing with PHO…lots of mixed comments about the name choice, and when Clockblocker said it meant vibration…. Yeah, I'm hiring crackers when I can safely afford it. "Look, I know you have a job tonight but I need a HUGE favor from you."

"…Something to do with the inner circle," I asked, so far a huge favor has something to do with them.

"Maybe, I'm not sure. One sec, I'm sending you some stuff." I nodded, then I realized he wasn't actually here.

"Right," I quickly accessed the deep web and enter a site maintained and used in our little cluster. I logged into my account. "Alright I'm in."

"Alright here's the password." He sent me letters, just regular black letters, obviously it wasn't the password. See the letters actually represented Morse code. A, for example, is represented by Dot Dash, or Dit Dah, but Pan showed me a system where the letters had different meanings, in this case A represented Dash Dash Dot. After I translated into morse code and back into letters and numbers, I entered the password for the mail I got. After I did I started looking at files, pictures. It was a guy, I can't accurately tell his height, he has blonde hair with buzz cut on the side, leaving the rest of his head well-kept, nose that looks a bit crooked, and a good set of teeth, not movie star level but pretty good. On the side was his power…biological nanites?

"Say Pan, what am I looking at?"

"My boy, Mikey," he replied, "found him when he messed up a job I brokered for one of my other clients a few years back. He was very eager to make up for it. Recently he's been trying to make it into the inner circle."

"Any reason?"

"Tons," he said, "don't know his particular reason, maybe he wanted the brotherhood or the tattoo," I hear that the tattoo is very special, "or maybe he wanted to be relied on," being someone the inner circle relies on means tough jobs but the payout is more than satisfactory, but I get the feeling that wasn't what Pan meant. "He's been on edge ever since the word got out that a member of the inner circle took a liking to you, and by default, me."

"All I did was build heat gun," I said with a shrug.

"But it was good enough," Pan replied. "'Bout a week ago he said he found something interesting. Then a few days ago he said that what he found was something the inner circle would want without a doubt."

"Really? What is it?"

"Dunno, he sent me pictures of the package and I'm still doing research but I still don't know. I think he was trying to make sure the Fedora Boogieman doesn't find out." Fedora Boogieman, basically just a woman wearing a fedora, all I know is that if anyone tries to hunt or track down Cauldron, they answer to her, and no one has ever won. I think Cicero is trying to hunt her down. The theory is that Cauldron either has a clairvoyant that can sense when someone is making progress into tracking them or some ne who can simply see, well, everything. I don't know how that would work but I mean we have capes who constantly break the laws of physics so it's not out of the question.

"Um package…" I said accessing the folder…okay…wait… "Um Pan, that's-"

"Yeah I know. But Mikey was pretty insistent."

"Umm," I let feeling a bit uncomfortable, "what does this have to do with me?"

"Like I said, Mikey was pretty insistent, so I told him to hole out in a safe house while I get in contact with our connection to the inner circle. He was dead set on not telling anyone what the hell was so special about the package unless it was face to face. I got in contact with The Grateful Dead, told me to ascertain what it is. When I called this morning to see if Mikey can come to me, he didn't pick up. Hell, not even voice mail."

"And you want me to go see if he's alright," I guessed.

"Yeah, you're the closest. Look Vee, I wouldn't ask you this if I didn't think its important."

"But my job tonight-"

"-can be rescheduled," He continued for me. "I'll talk to the client and- wait… We can probably outsource the job."

"Outsou-but isn't this to boost my image!" So far I've taken up three jobs that required me to leave Brockton Bay. I took a page out of Faultline's book and decided not to make mess where I live. I haven't found anything relevant to pass on to the PRT but usually if I do find anything I just hand it over to Pan and I get paid for it. So far, my jobs have just been to get key codes, the real building layouts not on the official blueprints, cameras and security check points, guards, hidden corporate capes, stuff people need to get in and out. Usually Pan just sells the information to other clusters, "let them do the damage," he says. And I do it all in the weekend, on the week days I just tinker and do some ground work, maybe a few audio jobs.

Recently he got a contract for me to go into a corporate building a fair distance away from Brockton Bay, steal "certain" data, and get out. The client doesn't really care about the method so long as the theft doesn't trace back to him or her and it gets done tonight. I just finished gathering data that I handed off to one of the guys on the plane with me and now I was on my way there.

"The client doesn't care about the method, besides, as long as this goes down tonight then the client is happy."

"Alright who?"

"Um…who's onboard with you?"

"A guy with merekat mask, another guy with a domino mask and a blond Mohawk, and, I honestly don't know if it's a guy or a girl, but the last person is bald and wear's a ghoul mask."

"Emir, Slet I think, and Maghoul, girl by the way. They don't do stuff for cheap, Emir might be good but he's not the guy we want, but…slet might be handy…."

"Tell me your joking."

"I am," he said with a sigh, "um…c'mon it been a month, don't you know people?"

"…actually," I began as I thought of something, "yeah. I do, _know_ people, but I never actually talked with them. Think you can con the Undersiders, Pan?"

"…who?"

"They're a local villain group in the Brockton Bay, small stuff, they mostly just stash and run, it's a group with four members. If Everything we know about Coil is true then I'm sure he's got some connection to them.

"And you want to use these guys?"

"Pan be honest, how many private detectives and odd balls have you found looking into me, you know, my identity?"

"Mmmm, it's up to 26 if you include the ones in the E88's pocket and few out of towners."

"Well…that's troubling but that part of my point. It's a shot but if Coil thinks he has an in with the Undersiders than maybe he might focus on them or hopefully reduce needlessly spending money on other sources."

"Ssssss," he sucked in air, "it's a long shot but he would have his attention on the Undersiders…alright lets try it. Smalltime group, probably looking to hit it big. I'm sure they'll jump at the bit."

"I'm sending you what I have on them. And there. You got it?"

"Yeah just got it."

"Alright, there's Grue, a shaker who can make dark smoke, even his wiki states that, but I think there's more to it. My sound has a very hard time propagating through the darkness, sometimes it barely even goes. I think he's the leader. Tattletale, from what I was able to pick up on the Protectorate chatter, a thinker but they're unsure in what manner. She serves as an early warning for the teams and from what I've been able to gather from afar, she's their point man. She helps them get into buildings and picks their getaway. A fairly high thinker if I ever saw it. Regent, dunno much about him, all I know is that he carries around a large stick with a Taser at the end and somehow trips people, they think that he might be Hijack."

"Hijack? Wait…" I heard loud clicking, "one sec-I know I heard that name before…. Here…he's Heartbreaker's kid?"

"I dunno," I said shaking my head. Heartbreaker, a scary guy in Canada I think, I'll look it up later. "I just telling you what I heard. And last but not least, the team's mover and muscles, Rachel Lindt, she has three mutated dogs and they pack a punch."

"So that's where she's been," he said, "any name she goes under these days?"

"PRT calls her Hellhound, team calls her Bitch."

"Ugh, the doggy names, oh well."  
"Know her?"

"Yeah, I know _of_ her. She's one of the few who triggers at a bad time where control over powers simply isn't possible. I heard of her a few times, you know, some guys telling me they see her. Pretty sure she has anger issues in some shape or form. Back then people called out her Cerberus, guess she didn't like it or understand it."

"I see, glad I'm not there in person then," Yeah, a thinker, I think our powers would clash, a shaker who I'm not completely sure what he does, someone who might be connected to a super villain in Canada, and a girl who attacks people, no way in hell am I going to get in the same room with them without a guaranteed trick up my sleeve.

"Got a way to get in touch with them," he asked, I smirked.

"'Course I do. One of them always carries their phone with them, I tracked it down…. Alright say I outsource and help you out, what's in it for me?"

"My undying gratitude?"

"…how about you owe me a favor."

"Done," he said. "give me a sec, setting up for thinker negotiations."

"…okay?"

"Oh, thinkers maybe thinkers, but only a hand few are actually smart. I got a system for negotiating with thinkers. Basically you keep them off their toes and give them something to focus on, false leads."

"I see, um, Mikey, what's his power and cape name? All I have is biological nanites."

"Basically a debit Nilbog. His power manifest nanites as a mist and it effects small mammals and plants. Only two at a time, he has perfect control and a large range."

"Huh, why doesn't his pro-"

"That's the general profile. It's just a general description of his power for other brokers like me. We have you with a pic from PHO and power written down as acoustics. Though I'm sure by now everyone has you figured as a tinker/thinker."

"I see, but his cape name?"

"He takes after The Grateful Dead, and simply uses his power's name as his own."

"And what's that?"

"Mistfit."

"…"

"Yeah I know," he said. "he honestly doesn't bother hiding is identity with a mask and stays away from people, you know, fights like a master. As far as I know PRT still hasn't figured it was him. They just assume it's something that escaped Ellisburg. Normally he does jobs around that area. It's only this time that he went down south."

"I see," a debit Nilbog hanging around Ellisburg, why am I not surprised? "Are you ready?"

"Yep."

"Okay conference call, let me talk first," I scrolled down my virtual screen and looked up the cell phone number I've been tracking. And tapped a few buttons and began to call. I heard it ring for a few times before a girl picked up.

"Who the hell is this," came a female's voice. Tattletale I assume.

"You've seen me on PHO, Tattletale, the video has been out long enough anyway. Listen, I don't have time for this, is the rest of the Undersiders there with you?"

"…We've never talked, and for some reason your voice is clear…something with sounds…" she said, "…You're the girl who took everyone down in Faultline's nightclub!" I didn't give her a lot to go on, yet she found it was me, a good thinker.

"And you have the powers of stating the obvious," I said, "is Grue there?"

"Hold your horse why did you call me," she demanded, "how the hell did you even get my number." I typed a command that sent a bunch sounds from my end. "what the-" it was code in sound that the cellphone on her end would interpret as a command, I put her phone on speaker.

"GRUE!"

"OW!" Tattletale yelled as I heard the phone hit the floor or something.

"What the hell," I heard a guy's voice say. I sent another code, this one would make the speakers send out a some sounds for echomapping. I took the data from the microphone on the phones and got a small echolocated map and created into a 3D rendition, two guys, one girl, and another girl with three dogs, all in the same room...second floor I think….Warehouse?

"Undersider's listen up. An associate of mine needs help, so now I need you guys to do something for me."

"Whoa-hold up," I heard another guy say, according to the map he was next to Tattletale, "who the hell are you?"

"BITCH!" Tattletale yelled, "You could have blown my ear drums!"

"That's still a possibility," I said. "for those of you who didn't hear Tattletale earlier, I'm V."

"…Wait, the new tinker," the second guy asked.

"I'm guessing you're Grue," I said. I saw his figure on my screen look at everyone else. Right now I was using one that only got me basic shapes.

"What if I am?"

"I had a job I was doing tonight, it's a fair distance away from the Bay, I was supposed to break in and steal certain data from the company. I want to outsource it to you guys."

"No deal," Grue said, "I don't know who the hell you think you are but from what I can tell, you figured our members number. That's a violation of the unwritten rules."

"Grue…with one button and my current echolocation that I'm using to map out the room will upgrade and capture every phone in the vicinity and perfectly map out every feature in the room, including faces behind mask and helmets. The later might be iffy, but the with former I get the phone numbers. After that it's just a matter of tracking down calls and names. Your powers might dampen the effect but I'll still get it, now…am I going break the unwritten rules, Tattletale?"

"…No," she said bitterly.

"Grue?"

"…You made your point," he said bitterly, "what do you want?"

"I want to outsource a job to you guys. Originally, I was going to do it, but something came up. And if you guys are worried about remunerations don't be. The job is worth a seventy-five thousand dollars."

"I'm sorry how much," he quickly asked.

"Seventy-five thousand dollars, clean, and I do mean clean, bills. Nothing you would ever find on a stripper's ass.

"Hey! My mom was a stripper," I think was Regent who said it.

"…Again, I am outsourcing this job to you, so sixteen grand ought to do it, Pan?"

"Yeah about four thousand each should do it," he responded.

"Hold on, who the hell are you," Tattletale asked in surprise, I had all their heartrates on my screen, isn't echolation rad?

"Pan, her broker," he replied. "I've been reading up on you guys and I got to say…I honestly don't think you guys can handle it."

"Well fuck you too," Regent said loudly, "you assholes came to us with this shit, mind telling us why," almost as if he didn't care.

"He's has a point," Grue said, "if you don't trust us then why bother? Also, that amount, no offense but that's too little for what I'm assuming has a quite a few risks to it."

"Simple, it's because your cheap," I said with smile behind my mask even though I knew they couldn't see me.

"That too," Pan said, "Vee sent me everything she has on you guys and I've been doing some reading, you guys are pretty small time. Shit! Vee, mind telling the pilot to make detour?"

"Where?"

"Already sent you the address. It won't bother the others but you would have to jump out so-"

"YOU WANT ME JUMP OUT WITHOUT A PARACHUTE!"

"Yep…Oh relax Maghoul and Slet are there. Maghoul can take you down for five hundred and if you pay Slet he can get her back on the plane. Head's up though, she's creepy as fuck."

"Hold on, where the fuck are you," Tattletale asked.

"On a private jet enjoying my Chicken Bellagio, reviewing my plans for tonight…now I'm outsourcing it to you guys while planning how reduce my expenditure for jumping off a goddamn plane!"

"Pff, you big baby," Regent said, "it's easy, just play with wind."

"Without a parachute."

"It's easy, just jump," he said. "I did it. You just need to hook up with someone before they pull the chute."

"No. Fucking. Parachute."

"Pff like that matters," he said.

"Regent…shut up," Grue said, "Look what makes you think we'll do this job?"

"You mean besides the fact the only way you will make this amount of cash without having to worry about fencing or cleaning the money is if you rob a casino," Pan spoke up.

"Oh," I said as I saw a few hearts sped up.

"What?"

"I think that was their plans, their heart rates sped up."

"And the only casino worth of damn that doesn't go too overboard with how they handle money is…you fuckers were seriously planning on robbing an ABB casino?"

"Hey liste-" Grue began, probably going to tell to fuck off or something.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP," Pan said, obviously angry. "Lung, the dragon of Kyushu, the man who actually fought Leviathan to a standstill, managed to repel the local protectorate heroes, has a psychotic teleporter on speed dial, and probably has the new bomb tinker in his hands." Wait what? "And you little shits are what? Planning a small stash and grab on his casino and expect him not to send everything he has on a small group of thieves to save face?"

"…We can-"

"MORONS! All of you! Grue, brotha, you sound like the leader, tell me this was not your idea."

"Look," Grue began bitterly, "you're a broker you know what rep means."

"Course I do, and you guys want what? An in into the big leagues? Grue. You can make darkness that blinds and dampens sounds, but no weapons. Tat's a thinker, very high it seems, but at most she has been seen with a handgun. Hellhound" I heard a snarl, "has her dogs, fast and mighty but she's not going to send them out to get killed."

"No way in hell," I heard her talk for the first time.

"And Regent can do some serious shit with enough time, but on the fly with an itty-bitty Taser? Not much," yeah Regent's heart went off the rails with that comment, "Put your team together and there's no way in hell all four of you can take on Lung, Oni Lee, and their tinker if she's already in Lung's claws. I can't say this is the big leagues, especially since the company will try to downplay the theft, but it should earn you some good dough without having to worry about fencing or a dragon. How you invest it is up to you guys, but I would seriously consider getting riot gear."

"Tch, you're acting like either of you can handle him," Rachel said. Both Pan and I Laughed.

"Yeah out of everyone in the bay, I already know Vee can knock him down and limit his movements to two limbs without ramping him up."

"He can shrug attacks off but not vibrations," I stated. I already had an idea in the works for taking Lung down besides my trump, Oni Lee, still thinking, but Lung, pretty much know how to slow him down without having to be next to him.

"So tell me, can any one of you limit Lung to such a degree without ramping him up?"

"I can blind him," Grue said, "and Regent-"

"Tattletale can your team take on Lung and Oni Lee and come out unscathed," I cut Grue off.

"…no," Tattletale admitted.

"Look I need to get off the line and figure out how the hell I'm jumping off a plane. Question, do you guys want a job where you have a fucking dragon chasing you with a teleporting nutjob with tinker bombs? Orrrrr, do you want a job where at most you will deal with a corporate sponsored cape with instructions on how to take him down and full bio? Doesn't that sound so much better or do you seriously want to piss off Lung by robbing a casino for a bunch of dirty bills?"

"…this is pretty short notice…" Grue said, "we plan our shit."

"Her plans were in the making for a week," Pan said, "passcodes, map layout, the actual layout, security checkpoints, guards and even the capes and their weaknesses. I'm letting you know now though, this corporation is a front, the guards posted will not hesitant to kill."

"What guaranty do you have that they won't hunt us down, like Lung," Grue asked.

"They'll be too busy covering their asses," Pan said, "I said it was a front, and what they are hiding is illegal and they are already under the microscope with Watchdog. You can be sure they will try their hardest to cover up the theft."

"So what are we stealing that's worth 75 grand," Regent asked.

"Depends, are you in or out?"

On my virtual screen, I saw that Grue look at everyone. His heart was erratic earlier but it calmed down. Tattletale nodded at him. "In." Good, I got someone to cover for me.

"Alright, lay it on 'em Vee."

"Research on a tinker drone from a villain who died almost two decades ago," I said.

"…How is that illegal," Regent asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you said it was front that had something illegal," Grue said.

"Yeah, not that the research wasn't legal," Pan answered.

"Oh I get it," Tattletale said, "They're not stealing from the guys _using_ the front, they're stealing _from_ the front. It's a legit business, despite being a front, and I'm guessing that the research on the drone must be good. The guards will probably be confused as to what we're after but they'll attack us all the same. But the fact that we were stealing from that building will draw unwanted attention. The people who own the front will simply cut their losses and try to downplay the theft as much as possible if only to get the attention off of them. In the end, we didn't steal anything they consider valuable, they would just play it off as random theft and leave us alone. Holy shit, why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you don't know anyone willing to fork over 75 grand for an item," Pan answered. "Tattletale you're the thinker, you got an onion?"

"The dark web thing? No, why," Tattletale asked in a confused manner.

"Sssss," Pan sucked in air, "and you were so promising," he said.

"What?"

"I know right," Regent said, "I use the dark web regularly. Can you text her the website?"

"On it," I said already typing.

"Then with this, I leave you guys for a while," Pan said, "I need to iron out some details first with Vee. I'll call you guys after you've had a chance to look over the plans and then we can negotiate a price, Vee!" I hang up and called Pan.

That worked.

"So what do you think?"

"Well I gotta say," Pan said, "I think they'll fuck up…either way it's a win-win." I smiled; the goal wasn't the theft of the data, it was the theft itself, the act of drawing attention to the front!

"Yep."

"Still, Tattletale really put it together fast. Think she knows?"

"Doubt it, but I'm sure she'll figure it out soon. I just hope they get me that data," I was the one who wanted the data, I mean c'mon tinker tech drone? As a tinker I'd be dumb not to go for that! My plan was to go in loud, make a lot of noise and take the data. Since I'm a cape that's has a bit of notoriety it was sure to draw attention from the PRT. Why the client wanted this for a lot of cash, no idea, but hey I'm not complaining. If it goes bad I could always make my way out. Not sure about the Undersiders though.

"Well; that takes care of that, I'm sending you the location of the safe house. If he's not there, well-"

"I'll look around," I said, "man, you were already getting fifteen percent, and now I'm losing more to the undersiders. Try to get them as cheap as possible, alright."

"Will do."

"Also, bomb tinker?"

"Yeah, triggered a while ago, I've been following up on it."

"Well you got lucky with one tinker."

"Yep, wanted to see if I could go on a role, but from what I've seen. She'd probably join an assassination cluster or something."

"Wai-we have those?"

"Oh yeah," he said with a bit of mirth. "Recently I found that her trail has been leading her to the Atlantic..."

"…in other words, Brockton Bay," I sucked my teeth, "why do I get the feeling this is my fault."

"Just you being paranoid. Look I gotta go, I have other people calling me."

"Remember, cheap as possible."

"Ah huh," he hung up.

Well, time to tell the pilot I guess.

* * *

"You know, I think you're doing this to avoid giving me an answer," Emir said from outside the lavatory, why the fuck was he even hanging outside the door?

"It's urgent," I said while rolling my eyes. I was riding comfortably in my plain clothes, nothing feminine, just loose jean with a belt and a long sleeve shirt. Right now I was putting on my gear. Nothing tinker-ish, I'm not exactly sure where Pan got the body armor, all I know is that it's lightweight, comfortably so, based off the controversial dragon armor but it was okay. I wore a white tank-top underneath, you know the ones you work out with, and I changed into a fresh pair of panties, then I put over a custom made black jacket with light blue outlines with long sleeves that was tight around the wrist and a turtle neck, the jacket had the dragon inspired armor on the front and the back so you had to slip it on like a shirt. Little uncomfortable doing so. The sleeve had a layer of mesh as well as the turtle neck, it could stop a low caliber bullet and knife but I wouldn't expect much from anything from higher caliber. The pants were black modified workpants with a mesh and knee pads and pockets, they also breathed a little, it too had blue highlights.

My mask, that was tinker tech, I got it off the black market, turns out it belonged to a hero. The story was that a villain offed a hero during a riot and someone scavenged the mask…well what one man spills another man collects. Thankfully it was battered and scratched to hell and what not so I got I good deal on it, I restored it myself, the tech wasn't too hard to understand, and added new functions to it.

It fit my face well and it used vacuum to comfortably stick to my face with strong black webbing that went around my head in case something happened (hid it with my dark hair), it didn't impede my vision in the slightest, and it allows me to use my Virtual Computer (I had an extra function that made keyboard sounds and custom gloves that let me feel like actually typing). The mouth was actually a tinker air filter I modified, it has an option to talk to other and to talk privately, when I say mouth it also included the nose (bottom part). Another thing I added was the bullet resistant headphones that encased my ears and connected to the mask, the flexible hard-plastic band went around my neck, under my hair line. The headphones looked a bit like speakers, they filtered sounds to a safe level. The mask itself didn't really have any special design. The mouth piece was plastic black while everything else looked glassy black, you honestly couldn't tell if it was the visor or mask.

Finally, my black belt, was just a utility belt with a gold [V] as the belt buckle. It carries my pocket knife and phone.

With that done I got out.

"So…you're ready I take it," Emir asked leaning not he wall of the plane

"Yep," I said dragging my carryon out with me. We both walked out to where Slet and Maghoul were playing video games.

"FUCK!" Slet yelled, apparently, he lost.

"Ready to go?" Maghoul asked, finishing the rest of my Chicken Bellagio.

"Yep."

"Cool, you might want to strap the carryon onto you.

"I don't have a strap."

"Then hold to it I guess. What about your suitcase?"

"just another carryon, I got someone picking it up," I answered. The one in my hands was my gear, the other one was just clothes.

"Kay," she said with a shrug as she stood up. She motioned me in front of her and I walked forward. Sleet and Amir quickly seated themselves and tightened their belts. Then Maghoul began to take her clothes off.

"Um…."

"My powers destroy my clothes," she answered, probably used to the question. One she was naked she simply tossed her garments aside. She didn't have much to look at. Her skin was gray, hairless, and she was flat (not that I could talk).

"You know," Slet said, "you don't have to put your clothes back on right away when you come back. We can have some fun when you get back," he had promiscuous grin on his face. Maghoul didn't say anything. Instead her chest writhed a bit before it opened up revealing her inners as her ribs extended into large spikes. "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! FORGET I ASKED," he freaked out. I don't blame him, I flinched when I saw the scene.

"Turn around and hold still," MaghouI ordered and I numbly did as I was told. I heard her footsteps, "lift your arms," I did so and I felt her ribs grasp my body tightly, bringing me close to her chest. "Carryon," she said, I was able to grab it and I brought to my waist, I tied my belt around it's handle, then I flipped it upside down and held on to it with both hands. "Relax, I've done this lot," she said. "HEY! WE'RE READY," She shouted. The plane began to tilt to the side, the right wing facing the ground. We were already at the right height, all we needed to do was jump. We got close to the window and we both looked at Emir.

"Whelp, I guess I'll take a raincheck on that dinner," he said.

"Thanks for doing this," I said. He shrugged.

"Just wish I got something out of it," he said with a bit of mirth...okay?

"Slet, you mind," Maghoul said, her voice distorted a bit, sounding deeper.

"Already done, just give me a call when to pull you back up."

"You got a phone," Maghoul asked me.

"Yes," I answered, my heart already racing.

"Emir."

"Whelp, time to dig dig a tunnel," he said.

"Wait did you just-" he snapped his fingers, suddenly Maghoul and I we're pulled out of the plane through the tunnel Emir made and were now free falling. The feeling of falling hit me instantly!

I screamed from the top of my lungs as I held on to the carryon for my dear life! The ground bellow me quickly rushing up to meet me, the wind turning my hair into whips and sending it everywhere. I could still hear the wind pushing past us despite the headphones!

...

I don't remember what happened. I think I passed out really fast or maybe I inhaled before I did. Either way when I came to I nearly shit myself and screamed a curse out loudly as my carryon beat against me. I quickly grabbed it with one hand and looked around. I found a mountain next to small town and a lake surrounded by a lot of forest. It was bright and sunny day. I quickly pointed to the mountain and shouted it, hoping Maghoul knew to head there. I didn't hear a reply but we were suddenly heading in that direction. After a while I started enjoying the free fall and began hollering, with a bit of fear at the back of my head as to how the hell we'll land. When we were close to the mountain I felt something slither through my back and up my spine and through my hair, sending uncomfortable shivers throughout my body. Then we started slowing down as we fell.

I could feel her ribs digging into me as well as the full weight of the carryon in my arms that already felt like jelly. We kept falling near the mountain, I think she was aiming for the asphalt road. Then after a while we started floating, still falling, her ribs really digging into me, I still held on to my carrying. I looked up and found out why. Above us was a giant meat balloon of some sort.

We finally made it to land safely, when we touched the ground Maghoul let go of me and right away a fell on my knees, grateful for the pads, and fell on top of my carryon. My legs felt wobbly and my arms were still shaking despite the fact that I liked the second half of the experience.

I turned to see Maghoul retracing her giant meat balloon insider her, her intestines I think, her arms and legs connect by skin looking just like a bat's wing. I stared at her with an odd morbid sense of curiosity. She exhaled…something, not sure if I want to know…actually was some of Maghoul still on me? Her skin tightening back to normal and her ribs shrunk and retract back inside her as soon as her guts were in place. Pretty soon Maghoul looked like a normal naked grey skinned girl with no hair and wearing a ghoul mask.

We stared at each other for a while in the middle of the road before she broke it.

"Um…it might be hot but I'm still kinda butt naked in the middle of the road here," she said.

"Ah right," I said pulling out my phone. Just a burner flip phone. I hand it to her, seeing as I didn't know Slet's number.

"Hey," she said as she called, "yeah we're on the ground…NO! I didn't drop her. Whatever just put me back," and she hung up. "Here," she tossed the phone. As soon as I caught it, she was gone. Slet's power was around the lines of "setting things back to their original position," how that works exactly, not sure. All I know was I was alone with just a carryon in the middle of the road. No car passing by any time soon it seems.

"Great," I muttered, I zipped open my carryon and pulled out the hardware for my VC. Two black boxes with silent fans, I made it, both were 2.5 inches thick, 4" by 4". I turned it on and put it back inside my carry on. The only downside of my "costume" is that its stuffy and that I still need to reduce the hardware. I was inspired by Arms master halberd to make it. Efficiency. Reduce what you need, like a screen or a keyboard and just do it all virtually. My mask had a few cameras and I had glasses inside my carryon that were thick and had bigger lenses but could be used for using the virtual computer. I may be an acoustic tinker but I still rely on my eye sight.

I quickly dialed pan. I let ring for bit while I transferred the call to my mask.

"Hey V, you on the ground yet?"

"Uh huh," I said as I grabbed the carryon, extended the plastic handle, and began to drag it up the hill with me. "According to the map function, I'm about half an hour away by foot." God, I was thankful I had tinker shoes. Climbing up a mountain with my carryon wearing a black outfit was not my idea of fun. "Anything I should know about the safe house?"

"I kept in good condition, so please be respectful and wipe your feet," he said.

"I meant security," I deadpanned.

"Nope nothing, I sent you the password for the keypad, and for the panic room, there's no mounted gun turret or anything. The windows do have metal bars though."

"Thanks," I said as I began to make some progress, "So how much?"

"6, 500 each."

"That's…about 26,000. Your 15% is…1,125, add that and subtract it from 75, 000 that's…37,750!"

"…And minus your other expenses…"

"…FUCK! That's what, 200 dollars?"

"Ehhhhh…well…It's hard being a tinker huh," he said.

"Pan…this better be worth it," I said shaking my head. Fuck, now I wish I rode coach!

"Meh look at the bright side, you're just building a foundation. I'll get you a job for next week, a good one," he promised.

"That better not be your favor," I threatened.

"Relax, I owe you one," he said, clearly not threatened.

"You better."

"So what do you think of the other guys? They were from two different clusters," changing the subject, I rolled my eyes.

"Slet's power seems alright, but I don't like him. Maghoul…I don't know what to say."

"I don't blame you, her powers...that's some necromorpth shit."

"Don't even know what that is. Emir…he's slick and a little stubborn…but then again I didn't give him a firm no." Pan laughed.

"Asked you didn't he?"

"Uh huh."

"Yeah, he's horn dog, both him and Slet, only he's better at it than Slet. Honestly a lot of us think he should have been named slet."

"I would agree to it. His tunnel power is cool though."

"Tunnel? I thought it was window." …Wait what?

"Window? Wasn't it tunnel? You know the Merekat mask?"

"Nah he just likes Meerkats, plus the name. Not sure exactly what it is but he create something like a windows into anything, and windows don't necessarily need glass or anything on it. It can just be a square or circle, similar to-"

"-a tunnel," I finished.

"Yep. He goes by the thing um, "eyes are the windows to the soul" or some other BS and that mirrors their intentions…I dunno. I just know that some weird mumbo-jumbo lead to his cape name being 'A-Mir-ror,' a lot of people think it's the word with two E's or the E I. Names and taste aside he can do some cool stuff with his windows."

"Besides making a tunnel?"

"Yeah, for example, he can make something like one-sided window where um…There's a wall, he's on one side and the enemy is on the other and he can make a window where he can see the enemy, but the enemy only sees a wall. Similar to a one-way mirror." I stopped walking. It just dawned on me as to why Amirror was standing outside the lavatory while I was changing.

"… **MOTHER FUCKER!** "

* * *

Author's note:

might just be me but I think i rushed this. Oh well, hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think! Unleash your inner Anal Kirito! I mean the abridged version not the the original.


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